While the link between smoking and a range of cancers is well-known, the World Health Organization warned that there was too little awareness of tobacco’s impact on the human heart.

On the occasion of World No Tobacco Day 2018, the UN health agency hailed that smoking had declined significantly since year 2000, but warned that there were still far too many people indulging in the dangerous habit.

And it cautioned that research showed there was “a serious lack of knowledge” about the different health risks associated with tobacco.

Tobacco use is linked to more than 7 million deaths worldwide each year. But many people are unaware that nearly half of those deaths, around 3 million, are due to cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks and stroke.

“Most people know that using tobacco causes cancer and lung disease, but many people aren’t aware that tobacco also causes heart disease and stroke — the world’s leading killers,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

“Tobacco doesn’t just cause cancer. It quite literally breaks hearts,” he said.

Yet in many countries, there is very little awareness that smoking significantly increases your chances of developing cardiovascular disease.

In China, for instance, a large WHO survey showed that more than 60 percent of the population is unaware that smoking can cause heart attacks, while in India and Indonesia, more than half of adults are unaware that smoking can cause stroke.