The number of adults who use tobacco worldwide has fallen steadily in recent years, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, warning that the industry is not giving up. In 2022, about one in five adults worldwide, or a total of 1.25 billion people, smoked or used tobacco derivatives, up from one in three at the turn of the millennium, the WHO said in a new report. The data shows that 150 countries have succeeded in reducing tobacco consumption.
But although smoking rates are declining in most countries, the WHO has warned that tobacco-related deaths are expected to remain high in the coming years. Smoking kills more than eight million people each year worldwide, including about 1.3 million non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke. The lag time between the implementation of strict tobacco control measures and the decline in the number of deaths from smoking is about <> years, the report points out.
Read alsoTobacco: Are Rising Prices Really Reducing the Number of Smokers?
30% of smokers in France
And even though the number of smokers has continued to decline, the WHO estimates that the goal of a 30% reduction in tobacco consumption between 2010 and 2025 will not be achieved. Fifty-six countries are expected to do so, including Brazil, which has already managed to reduce its tobacco consumption by 35% since 2010, and the Netherlands, which is on the verge of doing so. Six countries, on the other hand, have seen an increase in tobacco consumption since 2010: Congo, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Oman and Moldova. Southeast Asia currently smokes the most with 26.5% of adult smokers, but Europe (25.3% of smokers) is expected to have the highest rates in the world by 2030, with a prevalence of just over 23%. In France, in 2022 there were nearly 30% of smokers over 15 years old.
I am amazed at the lengths to which the tobacco industry is willing to go to make profits at the expense of countless lives.
Ruediger Krech, Director of the Department of Health Promotion at WHO.
But the WHO warns that the tobacco industry does not intend to sit idly by. "I am amazed at how far the tobacco industry is willing to go tomake profits at the expense of countless lives," Ruediger Krech, director of the WHO's Department of Health Promotion, said in a statement. "Significant progress has been made in tobacco control in recent years, but now is not the time to stand idly by," he warned, stressing that as soon as a country thinks it has won the war on tobacco, the tobacco industry reopens a new front.
New Zealand won't become the world's first smoke-free country
New products, lack of data
The WHO draws attention to the new so-called smoke-free products and calls for the collection of as much data as possible with regard to their success with adolescents. Thus, 10% of young people aged 13 to 15 in the world consume one or more types of tobacco. That's at least 37 million teenage consumers, including at least 12 million who use these new products. These figures are vastly underestimated, since more than 70 countries do not provide any data. Despite awareness-raising efforts, "young people recognize regular use of these products, easy access to purchase them, and little concern about the risk of addiction," the WHO points out.
She therefore urges the collection of as much data as possible because she sees it as "the most powerful way to fight the tobacco industry and to develop effective policies that prevent tobacco initiation". In February, the 10th session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is scheduled to take place in Panama. "The tobacco industry will attempt to influence global health policies by offering financial and in-kind incentives, thereby interfering with countries' rights to protect the health of their populations," the WHO warns in its statement.