On December 19, 2019 The World Health Organisation (WHO) released its 3rd edition of global report on trends in prevalence of tobacco use 2000-2025. As per the report despite decline in tobacco usage, India is off track to achieve 30% reduction in tobacco use by 2025 when compared to its 2010 levels. 163 nations besides India are also not on track in this regard. The report in detail are as follows:
Report on India:
i.Expected tobacco usage reduction by 2025: Based on current progress by India, a reduction in the tobacco usage by 23% by 2025 is expected in the country.
ii.Consumption data in India: The consumption in India is going down by 21.6% points. In male, the consumption will go down to 35.8% from 57.3% by 2025. The consumption in female for the same period will decline to 8% from 29.8%.
iii.Data in 2010: 44% of the people in 2010 used tobacco. India was one of the top 10 producers of tobacco then.
General Report:
i.Tobacco usage: Over the past 2 decades, usage of tobacco has fallen by 60 million people mainly due to the reduction of usage by females. The male tobacco use had risen by around 40 million over the same period. For the 1st time, the WHO projects that the number of males using tobacco is on the decline.
- 24 million adolescents are cigarette smokers globally as per the estimate.
- Tobacco users: The no. of tobacco smokers globally in 2000 was 1.1 billion and is projected to remain at around 1.1 billion until at least 2025.
- Usage reduction: Global tobacco use has fallen, from 1.397 billion in 2000 to 1.337 billion in 2018.
ii.America region: The only region that is expected to achieve 30% relative reduction in the prevalence of tobacco use by 2025 is the Americas region.
- Average tobacco use: The average rate of tobacco use in this region is expected to fall from around 23% in 2010 to 15% in 2025.
iii.Target achievable nations: 1 out of 8 countries in Southeast Asia, 3 out of 27 countries in Western Pacific region, 6 out of the 53 countries in European region, 1 out of 23 in the Eastern Mediterranean, 13 out of 35 in the Americas and 8 out of 46 in the African region will achieve targets in reducing tobacco consumption.
iv.Smokeless tobacco: 13.1 million global consumers use smokeless tobacco. Out of the 13.1million people, 8.1 million are from the South East Asian region.
- Smokeless tobacco use among women in the Southeast Asia region is 7 times more prevalent than smoked tobacco use.
v.Smallest decline in tobacco use will be seen in Western Pacific region countries (11.7%), followed by European region countries (18.0%). The South-East Asian region would be 28.7%.
vi.Increase in consumption: Five countries i.e., Congo, Lesotho, Niger, Egypt and Oman are likely to experience an increase in consumption of Tobacco. 84 countries (out of 194) will continue to witness a downward spiral but the reduction will be less than 30%.
vii.Anti tobacco programmes: The recent report on Global Tobacco Epidemic 2019 states that 1 in 3 countries use best practices of monitoring the tobacco usage, but only very few countries achieved this in 2018 than in 2016.
viii.Deaths by tobacco:
- Annually 8 million people die from tobacco use. More than 7 million deaths are caused due to direct tobacco usage, while 1.2 million people dying are non smokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke.
- Most of the tobacco related deaths occur in low-and middle-income countries. Click here to know more
About World Health Organisation (WHO):
Founded- 7 April 1948.
Headquarters- Geneva, Switzerland.
Director General(DG)- Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Parent Organization- United Nations Economic and Social Council (UN-ECOSOC)
