The estimates are published in the medical journal The Lancet, which publishes three studies on smoking prevalence in 204 countries among men and women aged 15 and over, including age at initiation of tobacco use, comorbidities and risks among smokers and former smokers.
Higher tobacco taxes, the elimination of flavors such as menthol in all nicotine-containing products, a ban on tobacco advertising on the Internet, including on social media, and an increase in smoke-free sites are measures to prevent smoking among the youngest.
The research, summarized in a statement by The Lancet, is released ahead of World No Tobacco Day, which is scheduled for Monday.
China tops the list of the 10 countries with the most smokers in 2019, with 341 million tobacco users: one in three smokers in the world have lived in China for two years.
China is followed by India, Indonesia, USA, Russia, Bangladesh, Japan, Turkey, Vietnam and the Philippines. Together, these countries account for nearly two-thirds of the world’s smokers.
About 87% of tobacco-related deaths worldwide are among active smokers. Only 6% of deaths were associated with people who quit smoking at least 15 years ago.
In 2019, smoking was associated with 1.7 million deaths from cardiac ischemia, 1.6 million deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 1.3 million deaths from trachea, bronchial and lung cancers, and almost a million deaths from stroke.
According to previous studies, at least one in two long-term smokers will die from causes directly related to smoking, with the average lifespan of smokers 10 years lower than those who have never smoked.
Globally, one in three men and one in five women smoked the equivalent of 20 or more cigarettes a day in 2019.
In the same year, there were an estimated 155 million smokers between the ages of 15 and 24, according to estimates published by The Lancet.
In countries such as Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, France, Chile and Turkey, as well as in the Danish Autonomous Region of Greenland, more than one in three young people smoked.
India, Egypt and Indonesia saw the largest increases in young male smokers, while Turkey, Jordan and Zambia saw the largest increases in young women smokers, as “progress in reducing smoking prevalence has not kept pace with growth. in the population ”, emphasizing the growth in the number of young smokers.
On average around the world, people start smoking regularly at the age of 19. In Denmark, the most “early developed” country, the average age is 16.4 years, while in Togo, on the contrary, it is 22.5 years.
In most countries, the legal minimum age for buying tobacco is 16 or 18. In the USA, Uganda, Honduras, Sri Lanka, Samoa and Kuwait for 21 years.
One study estimated that 273.9 million people used chewing tobacco (ground tobacco) in 2019, increasing their risk of oral cancer, with 83% of them living in South Asia.
India is the champion country in the consumption of chewing tobacco (185.8 million consumers, accounting for more than half of the world’s consumers).
Taking the numbers into account, the study’s authors warn about the need for “stricter regulation and policies” to limit the high prevalence of this consumption in some Asian countries.
In a statement, The Lancet warns that the three studies have limitations, such as the fact that the health effects of smoking do not include secondhand smoke, and the data do not include consumption of e-cigarettes or heated tobacco products.
