Tobacco consumption is one of the greatest avoidable health risks in the European Union, Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU, reported on the occasion of the World No Tobacco Day on Thursday. Many forms of cancer and cardiovascular and respiratory disease are linked to tobacco use.
Of the 5.2 million deaths reported in the EU in 2015, a quarter (1.3 million) were due to cancer. Of those deaths, 273 400 were caused by lung cancer, including cancer of the trachea and bronchi. In other words, lung cancer was the main type of fatal cancer in the EU, accounting for over a fifth (21%) of all cancer-related deaths. Men were twice as affected as women: 184 600 men died of lung cancer, compared with 88 800 women.
Across the EU Member States, the share of lung cancer among all fatal cancers was highest in Hungary (27%), followed by Greece, Denmark, Poland and the Netherlands (all 24%), Belgium (23%) and the United Kingdom (22%).
At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest shares were recorded in Portugal and Latvia (both 15%), Lithuania, Sweden and Slovakia (all 16%).
