World Smoking Rates On Decline

This is according to a report by the World Health Organization that was released on Friday.

WHO has estimated that about six million people die around the world every year from smoking-related causes, more than five million from direct tobacco use and the rest from second-hand smoke.

The report says that about 80 percent of the world's one billion smokers live in low and middle-income countries.

According to an analysis published in The Lancet Medical Journal of trends in more than 170 countries, smoking prevalence among men fell in 72 percent of countries measured in the decade 2000-2010 and a decline was observed among women in 88 percent of the countries.

"WHO member states have agreed to a voluntary target of reducing tobacco use by 30 percent worldwide by 2025 from 2010 levels," read the report.

However  on current trends, "only 37 (21 percent) countries are on track to achieve their targets for men and 88 (49 percent) are on track for women".

"We project that the highest smoking quintile among men will shift from low-income and middle income countries in Europe and the western Pacific to those in Africa and the eastern Mediterranean."

WHO has added that one person dies about every six seconds due to tobacco, accounting for one in 10 adult deaths and up to half of current users will eventually die of a tobacco-related disease.

 A separate study carried by the same journal said that on current rates, about three million people will die from smoking every year in China alone by 2050.

"Of great concern, about 100 million of the 0.3 billion Chinese smokers that are now younger than 30 years will eventually have tobacco-related deaths," it said.

Source: AFP

by Musalia Wycliffe