Page 93 - Human Rights

Faculty of Nursing
Adult care Nursing Department

5 Increase and value attitudes that aim to prevent traffic and work accidents, and prevent gender

violence.

Further, the regular consumption of alcohol during childhood, even in small quantities, can affect

the child’s brain which continues developing into their early twenties (Department of Health
2019). Moreover, alcohol can dramatically affect the performance at school.

Perhaps, for this reason, some epidemiologists consider that alcohol represents a major public

health problem related to addictions (Department of Health and Human Services 2019).

Smoking is also a major cause of mortality and morbidity in many countries.

According to the WHO, tobacco kills more than 8 million people each year (World Health

Organization 2019a).

More than 7 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while around 1.2 million

are the result of nonsmokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.

It is estimated that approximately 15% of cancers in developed countries are related to tobacco

consumption (Cancer Research UK 2019).

Recent data indicate a decrease in the percentage of smokers worldwide.

Indeed, the global prevalence of tobacco smoking among people aged ≥ 15 years reveals a

prevalence of 26.9% in 2000 and a prevalence of 18.7% in 2020 (World Health Organization

2018a). However, around 80% of the world’s 1.1 billion smokers live in low- and middle-income

countries.

Efforts to combat smoking at the global level conform to two types of preventive strategies: a)

information/disclosure and b) legislation.

90 Academic Year 2025/2026