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The World Health Organisation (WHO) has projected for the first time that the number of males using tobacco is on the decline including in Qatar, indicating a powerful shift in the global tobacco epidemic.
‘WHO global report on trends in prevalence of tobacco use 2000-2025 third edition,’ published recently shows how that government-led control efforts work to save lives, protect health and beat tobacco.
During the nearly past two decades, number of overall global tobacco users have fallen, from 1.397 billion in 2000 to 1.337 billion in 2018, or by approximately 60 million people, according to the recent WHO global report.
The new 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 five million less by 2025 (1.087 billion).
By 2020, WHO projects 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.
In Qatar, the current tobacco use prevalence trends among people aged 15 years and older among men in 2000 was 30.2 percent, in 2005 was 29.5 percent, in 2020 it is predicted to be 28.1 percent and in 2025 will be 27.5 5 percent. Among female it was 2.5 percent in 2000 and is predicated to be 1.1 percent in 2020.
“Declines in tobacco use among males mark a turning point in the fight against tobacco,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General has said upon releasing the report.
“For many years now we had witnessed a steady rise in the number of males using deadly tobacco products. But now, for the first time, we are seeing a decline in male use, driven by governments being tougher on the tobacco industry. WHO will continue working closely with countries to maintain this downward trend,” he added.
The WHO report covers use of cigarettes, pipes, cigars, waterpipes, smokeless tobacco products (like bidis, cheroots and kretek) and heated tobacco products. Electronic cigarettes are not covered in the report. “In this report we are able to see for the first time that the number of people using tobacco in the world is declining, despite population growth.
The number of male tobacco users, which previously was increasing every year, finally turned the corner in 2018 and is projected to decline each year from 2019 forward. For this projection to become reality, tobacco control efforts need to be reinforced, and in some countries accelerated, to prevent additional people falling victim to tobacco-related illnesses and death,” Dr Naoko Yamamoto, Assistant Director-General, Universal Health Coverage/Healthier Populations at WHO has said in the report.
