Smoking rates have dropped worldwide for the first time in history, according to a new report on tobacco use by a public health promotion organization and US university professors.
However, the details of the report “Atlas of Tobacco“- which its authors describe as a possible turning point – do not include a growing number of smokers in some parts of the world, as well as increased tobacco use among adolescents in almost half of the participating countries.
Globally, there are 1.1 billion smokers and 200 million more people using other tobacco products, according to a report by the Vital Strategies and the Tobacconomics team at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
This equates to a reduction in smoking rates from 22.6% which was the percentage of smokers in 2007 to 19.6% in 2019, the researchers said, the first decrease since the study began in 2002.
However, population growth in Africa, the eastern Mediterranean and the Western Pacific means that there is still a growing number of smokers in various parts of the country, the report said.
In addition, smoking rates are rising among adults in at least ten African countries, as well as among young people.
In some countries, children are also targeted by the tobacco industry, resulting in an increase in smoking among adolescents aged 13-15 in 63 of the 135 participating countries.
An estimated 50 million people in this age group, both boys and girls, are currently using tobacco products and the impact of new products, such as e-cigarettes and flavored products, is not yet fully understood.
Reducing their worldwide presence is an indication of the effectiveness of strict tobacco control measuressuch as increased taxation, says Jeffrey Drop, a professor of public health at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and one of the study’s authors.
However, as he explains, many of the low-income countries do not have strict enough smoking restrictions.
Evidence shows that tobacco use caused 8.7 million deaths worldwide in 2019 and nearly two trillion dollars in financial losses.
Although more than half of all deaths are currently reported in high-income countries, this is expected to change if smoking continues to rise in low-income countries.
The report also states that the tobacco industry is targeting black smokers in the US by promoting mint cigarettes.
The report’s authors agree with the US Food and Drug Administration’s plan to ban their sale.
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