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Global tobacco use rates are expected to fall further in 2022. That year, one in every five persons globally used tobacco, compared to one in every three in 2000.
On Tuesday, the WHO’s director of Health Promotion presented the key results of the Global Tobacco Report in Geneva.
“We have 1.25 billion people still smoking. That is the last figure we have from the Global trends report that we’re releasing today,” Dr Rüdiger Krech said.
“But that also means that we have 19 million less smokers than we had two years ago. That is the first time that we see such a decline.”
Currently, the lower middle-income nations are experiencing the fastest decreases in tobacco use, while the WHO South-East Asian area has the largest proportion of tobacco users, but at rapidly declining rates.
The WHO region with the lowest tobacco use prevalence is the African Region, which has already reduced from an average of 18% in 2000 to less than 10% in 2022.
WHO urges governments to continue implementing tobacco control legislation and combating tobacco industry involvement.
According to Krech, “the region that is a bit of a problem is the European region where especially women are […] on the increase in some parts, in some countries, or at very high levels still of tobacco users.”
According to the survey, at least 37 million youngsters aged 13 to 15 use tobacco products, and many nations have reported worrying levels of e-cigarette usage among teenagers.
There is an obvious need for rules that limit advertising to young people, restrict access, and prevent exposure to tobacco and nicotine products.
Alarming rates among children
The report estimates that there are at least 37 million children aged 13-15 currently using some form of tobacco.
Many countries inclduing the UK have found alarming levels of e-cigarette use among adolescents.
The WHO director of health promotion pleaded for more regulation.
“There’s a few countries who have banned e-cigarettes, which we welcome. If you have not banned it, you should take very strong regulatory measures, meaning that you need to ensure that children do not get access to e-cigarettes.”
Krech mentioned that “we have teachers calling us, especially in the UK, where you saw a 150 per cent increase in the last three years of uptake of e-cigarettes by children. So, they call us to say children cannot stay a whole 45-minute lesson anymore because they need to step out to get e-cigarettes.”
Since most of the e-cigarettes and vapes are purchased through internet, it would be important, according to the WHO, to ensure that these devices are no longer available to children.
All the different kind of flavors offered for vaping are more attractive to children and less to older adults. “You have thousands of flavors, each of these flavors contain different chemicals,” said WHO’s Krech. “So the toxicity of these liquids, if you inhale them, if you’re not swallowing them, but you inhale them, is completely different. So, the tactics of the tobacco industry is to swamp the market.”
To protect future generations and guarantee that tobacco use continues to drop, WHO will focus this year’s World No Tobacco Day on safeguarding children from tobacco industry meddling.
According to Krech, those who use vaping to stop smoking should be controlled like medicine, which may be obtained through a pharmacy with a prescription.
Every year, tobacco kills more than 8 million people, including an estimated 1.3 million nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke.
