World Tobacco Atlas rings alarm bells for India - The Times of India
►http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/World-Tobacco-Atlas-rings-alarm-bells-for-India/articleshow/12448418.cms
On a day when a Lancet study said tobacco-related cancers in India caused 1.2 lakh deaths in 2010, and were responsible for over 40% of male and nearly 20% of female cancers, a new Tobacco Atlas brought out by the World Lung Foundation says over 390,000 hectares are being used in India to grow tobacco.
Tobacco is grown in 124 countries, occupying 3.8 million hectares of agricultural land.
The Atlas says each hectare of land devoted to tobacco produced one tonne of tobacco leaf, while a similar size of plot growing potatoes had a yield of 14.6 tonnes in the same year.
The Atlas pegs India’s direct healthcare costs due to tobacco at $1,195 million.