FOR the first time, the World Health Organization (WHO) projects that the number of men using tobacco is on the decline, indicating a powerful shift in the global tobacco epidemic.
This shows that the number of men using tobacco is on the decline, indicating that government-led control efforts have been effective to save lives, protect health, and beat tobacco use.
The WHO report demonstrates how government-led actions can protect communities from tobacco, save lives, and prevent people suffering tobacco-related harm.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says that declines in tobacco use amongst males mark a turning point in the fight against tobacco.
During the past two decades, overall global tobacco use has fallen, from 1.397 billion in 2000 to 1.337 billion in 2018, or by approximately 60 million people, based on the third edition of the WHO global report on trends in prevalence of tobacco use 2000-2025.
This has been largely driven by reductions in the number of females using these products (346 million in 2000 down to 244 million in 2018, or a fall over around 100 million).
Over the same period, male tobacco use had risen by around 40 million, from 1.050 billion in 2000 to 1.093 billion in 2018 (or 82 percent of the world’s current 1.337 billion tobacco users).
The latest report shows that the number of male tobacco users has stopped growing and is projected to decline by more than one million fewer male users come 2020 (or 1.091 billion) compared to 2018 levels, and 5 million less by 2025 (1.087 billion).
By 2020, the WHO projects that there will be 10 million fewer tobacco users, male and female, compared to 2018, and another 27 million less by 2025, amounting to 1.299 billion.
Some 60 percent of countries have been experiencing a decline in tobacco use since 2010.
Reductions in global tobacco use demonstrate that when governments introduce and strengthen their comprehensive evidence-based actions, they can protect the well-being of their citizens and communities.
Despite such gains, progress in meeting the global target set by governments to cut tobacco use by 30 percent by 2025 remains off track.
Currently, only 32 countries are currently on track to reach the 30 percent reduction target.
However, the projected decline in tobacco use among men, who represent the overwhelming majority of tobacco users, can be built on and used to accelerate efforts to reach to the global target.
Fewer people are using tobacco, which is a major step for global public health, but the work is not yet done.
Without stepped up national action, the projected fall in tobacco use still won’t meet global reduction targets.
Every year, more than eight million people die from tobacco use, approximately half of its users.
More than seven million of those deaths are from direct tobacco use while around 1.2 million are due to non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.
Most tobacco-related deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, areas that are targets of intensive tobacco industry interference and marketing. (jaypeeyap@ymail.com/PN)
