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First the good news: people in Germany smoke fewer
cigarettes
.
The consumption of ready-made cigarettes was 71.8 billion units in 2021 and was therefore 2.8 percent lower than in the previous year.
This emerges from the "Yearbook Addiction 2022" of the German Head Office for Addiction Questions (DHS) in Hamm, which was published on Tuesday.
With a per capita consumption of 863 cigarettes in this sub-area, this is the lowest value since reunification.
For roll-your-own, consumption fell by 5.6 percent to an amount equivalent to about 37.3 billion roll-your-own.
At the same time, however, the consumption of tobacco for
hookahs
increased , which is the less good news: pipe tobacco increased significantly by 40 percent to almost 8,400 tons.
»The reason for this is the continuing popularity of the special water pipe tobacco, which is smoked in shishas primarily by adolescents and young adults.«
97 billion euros for tobacco-related diseases
In 2021, 29.4 billion euros were spent on tobacco products in Germany.
According to the latest figures, in 2020 every fourth woman (24 percent) and every third man (34 percent) aged 18 and over smoked.
According to the latest figures, around 127,000 people died in 2018 as a result of smoking.
The overall economic costs - for example for the treatment of tobacco-related diseases - amounted to an estimated more than 97 billion euros annually.
There is still a lot to be done in terms of prevention and control policy, said DHS Managing Director Christina Rummel.
The measures taken so far have led to a decline, but that is far from enough.
When it comes to
alcohol
, Germany, as a "high-consumption country", does poorly in an international comparison, even if there are signs of an improvement.
"Alcohol is a cytotoxin," said DHS CEO Norbert Scherbaum, numerous physical illnesses are due to alcohol consumption.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were 62,000 alcohol-related deaths in Germany within a year.
The number refers to the year 2016, there is no more recent one from the organization, since the WHO only conducts the study among 195 countries at longer annual intervals, explained Rummel.
However, progress has been made - especially in a long-term comparison: while in 1970 every German citizen aged 15 and over consumed an average of 14.4 liters of pure alcohol, in 2019 it was still 10.2 liters.
A week of action starting May 14 is intended to draw attention to the risks.
Help for particularly vulnerable groups
When looking at the legal
gambling market
, the report shows a clear decline of a good eleven percent to 38.3 billion euros in sales in 2020. The largest market segment is the 220,000 commercial slot machines installed in arcades and restaurants.
Strong declines can also be expected in the non-regulated, illicit market.
What traces is the ongoing pandemic leaving behind?
Corona has also severely affected the mental health of the population, emphasizes in Hamm.
In crises, many people increasingly try to use addictive substances to balance their stress.
However, it cannot be concluded from this that people in Germany have become more addicted to Corona.
From the point of view of addiction help, the hardships caused by the pandemic are particularly difficult for young people and often aggravate the situation for people who already had psychosocial or health problems.
"Prevention, early intervention, advice, treatment and addiction self-help are therefore all the more needed to support those at risk of addiction and those suffering from addiction," warned prevention officer Christine Kreider.
And: "More than ever, we have to take care of particularly vulnerable population groups, such as children from addict families."
hey/dpa
