There are fewer and fewer people “toasting one”. The number of adults who use tobacco around the world has steadily declined in recent years, said the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday, warning that the industry is not giving up and wants to reverse the trend. In 2022, around one in five adults worldwide smoked or consumed tobacco derivatives, compared to one in three at the turn of the millennium, the WHO says in a new report.
150 countries have succeeded in reducing tobacco consumption
In it, it examines trends in smoking prevalence since 2000 and between now and 2030 and the data shows that 150 countries have successfully reduced tobacco consumption. While smoking rates are falling in most countries, the Organization warns that tobacco-related deaths are expected to remain high in the years to come. Its statistics show that smoking kills more than eight million people each year, including around 1.3 million non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke.
The latency time between the implementation of strict tobacco control measures and the reduction in the number of deaths from smoking is around thirty years, underlines the report. And even if the number of smokers has continued to decrease, the WHO estimates that the objective of a 30% reduction in tobacco consumption between 2010 and 2025 cannot be achieved. Fifty-six countries should achieve this, including Brazil, which has already managed to reduce its tobacco consumption by 35% since 2010.
The tobacco industry will not stand idly by
Six countries, on the other hand, have seen tobacco consumption increase since 2010: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Oman and Moldova. However, overall, the world is on track to reduce tobacco consumption by a quarter over the period 2010-2025, the report’s authors estimate. But the WHO warns that the tobacco industry has no intention of standing idly by.
“Notable progress has been made in tobacco control in recent years, but now is no time for complacency,” warned Ruediger Krech, director of the WHO health promotion department, in a statement. “I am amazed to see how far the tobacco industry is willing to go to make profits at the expense of countless lives,” he accused, stressing that as soon as a country thinks it has won the war on tobacco, the tobacco industry is reopening a new front.