Tobacco ‘still hooks one in five adults worldwide’ says a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) – ‘fuelling millions of preventable deaths’.
The number of global tobacco users has fallen from 1.38bn to 1.2bn in the last quarter century, with a 27 per cent drop since 2010 alone. However, more than 100m people are now vaping, says the document, including 86m adults – mostly in high-income countries – and at least 15m 13-15-year-olds.
Women are ‘leading the charge’ to quit tobacco, says the report, with prevalence of tobacco use among women falling from 11 per cent to 6.6 per cent between 2010 and 2024 – four out of five tobacco users are now men. More than half of the decline in global tobacco use has taken place in South-East Asia, ‘once the world’s hotspot’, while Europe is now the highest prevalence region, with a quarter of adults still using tobacco.
Although the world is ‘smoking less’ the ‘tobacco epidemic is far from over’, states WHO. It accuses the tobacco industry of introducing ‘an incessant chain’ of new products and technologies for its ‘aim to market tobacco addiction with not just cigarettes but also e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, heated tobacco products, among others’. These ‘all harm people’s health’, it states, ‘and more worryingly the health of new generations, youth and adolescents’. The report is calling for ‘governments everywhere’ to step up tobacco control.
The WHO’s stand on e-cigarettes remains controversial, however. An independent review commissioned by Public Health England in 2015 concluded that e-cigarettes were around 95 per cent less harmful than smoking, while leading anti-smoking charity ASH has published a ‘myth buster’ on e-cigarettes. ‘The chief medical officer has put the case very succinctly’ it states – ‘“If you smoke, vaping is much safer; if you don’t smoke, don’t vape”,’ adding that fewer than one in ten smokers understood this and media coverage often failed to make it clear.
A report from earlier this year found that misinformation was now actively discouraging young people from switching to vaping, despite almost 3m people using vapes to successfully quit smoking in the previous five years. It was important that vape regulations addressed youth vaping ‘while not deterring use of vapes as quitting aids’, said ASH at the time.
‘Millions of people are stopping, or not taking up, tobacco use thanks to tobacco control efforts by countries around the world,’ said WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. ‘In response to this strong progress, the tobacco industry is fighting back with new nicotine products, aggressively targeting young people. Governments must act faster and stronger in implementing proven tobacco control policies.’ E-cigarettes were fuelling ‘a new wave of nicotine addiction’, added WHO director of health determinants, Etienne Krug. ‘They are marketed as harm reduction but, in reality, are hooking kids on nicotine earlier and risk undermining decades of progress.’
WHO global report on trends in prevalence of tobacco use 2000–2024 and projections 2025–2030 available here