[Mortality due to smoking in Tunisia in 1997]

In Tunisia, in spite of the high prevalence of the cigarette smoking among males, there consequences in term of mortality were not until evaluated. These last can be estimated from tobacco consumption data, mortality statistics and estimates of risks observed among populations of smokers in cohort studies. Numbers of deaths by causes have been estimated from WHO for 1998 year. Smoking prevalence have been estimated from a national survey conducted in 1996 by l'Institut National de Santé Publique and the National League against the Tuberculosis and the Respiratory Illness. Mortality attributable to tobacco in Tunisia has been estimated 6430 deaths. The effect of smoking are a lot more important at the man (5580 deaths), contributing to 22% of male deaths, that at the woman (850 deaths) contributing at 4% of the female deaths. The present mortality to tobacco is similar to certain developed countries as France or Canada. The consumption of cigarettes even though it recorded a light decrease during these last years, remain even elevated notably at the young. Then it is waited to see an increase of tobacco related deaths during the future decades. It is urgent to conduct an efficient politics against this tobacco epidemic by helping the smoker to stop smoking and preventing teenagers to begin to smoke.