An estimated 3,287 people will die today across Europe because of smoking. Another 3,287 will die on Thursday and so on every day in a seemingly relentless death toll linked to the use of tobacco.
The World Health Organisation hopes to call a halt to at least some of these deaths today, on World No Tobacco Day, with a new campaign to smash the "image of tobacco as glamorous and fun".
The "Tobacco Kills - Don't Be Duped" campaign will be launched today by the WHO's director general, Ms Gro Harlem Brundtland. It will include posters, television and cinema advertising, some using the tobacco industry's own familiar icons.
One leaflet will depict two macho cowboys on horseback, one telling the other, "Bob I've got cancer". The campaign would be "unconventional and unorthodox" Ms Brundtland is scripted to say at the launch in Bangkok.
The statistics on smoking don't give much room for hope, however, that people's long-standing affair with this extraordinarily dangerous consumer product will end because of a leaflet.
Figures to be presented this evening at a talk by Dr Desmond Carney, consultant medical oncologist in the Mater Hospital, will depict the chilling reality. More than half of the children beginning the Junior Cert on June 7th are already committed smokers.
Smoking is the main cause of lung cancer, emphysema, heart disease and many other avoidable illnesses. While the total number of smokers in the State is in gradual decline, smoking amongst teenage girls is rising, ensuring a legacy of ill health and premature death for the coming years.
These individuals, when they fall ill as they inevitably must, will end up in hospital as medical science uses its resources to overcome their self-inflicted illnesses. Yet these same institutions are struggling to keep tobacco out of their own corridors.
The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, yesterday launched the "National Minimum Standard Smoke-Free Policy for Hospitals" in anticipation of World No Tobacco Day with an acknowledgement that even hospitals could not yet provide a haven for non-smokers.
The ultimate goal was to achieve a "totally smoke-free environment" for patients and for staff but this could only be achieved over time, he said.
And as the clock ticks, tobacco will take another 3,287 next Saturday and the same again on Sunday and so it goes.
