Over 35,000 people die from using tobacco, alcohol in Sri Lanka annually

COLOMBO: Over 35,000 people die from the excessive use of alcohol and tobacco in Sri Lanka yearly, local media reports said Tuesday, quoting medical experts from the Sri Lanka Medical Association.

According to statistics from the Sri Lanka Medical Association, an estimated 18,000 people die from the use of tobacco and an estimated 20,000 from the use of alcohol in the island country.Head of the Sri Lanka Medical Association, Anula Wijesundara told the local Daily News that a person addicted to alcohol in Sri Lanka consumes at least an average of 3.5 liters of alcohol on a daily basis.

According to Dr Wijesundara, over 200 billion rupees (1.1 billion US dollars) is spent annually to treat those addicted to alcohol and tobacco.Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena recently blamed the use of tobacco and alcohol for the increasing poverty level and deterioration of health among poor people in the country.

Sirisena said the low-income groups were spending 35 percent of their earnings on tobacco and alcohol.He said the government would aim to ban the cultivation of tobacco in the country by the year 2020.