New WHO report shows tobacco trends moving slowly
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* Aya Takai

Tobacco use is dropping globally, but not quickly enough for public health experts.

Global rates of tobacco use have decreased since 2010, but the downward trends are not likely to meet 2025 goals. The World Health Organization released “WHO Global Report on Trends in Prevalence of Tobacco Smoking 2000-2025,” on May 31 to address gaps in progress.

WHO calls for reducing tobacco use rates by 30 percent by 2025. But the report shows that only 24 of the 146 countries are on track to achieve the goal. Although global tobacco use has decreased 6.7 percent globally since 2000, rates and trends vary among regions and sexes.

WHO reported that smoking has decreased in every region except for Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean region. The report predicted that if tobacco control is not strengthened in the Eastern Mediterranean region, smoking rates are projected to increase by 2025.

The report showed that the rates of smoking are much higher among men than women. In 2015, 34.1 percent of males used tobacco products, compared with 6.4 percent of females. Women are quitting more than men, and the WHO report predicts the world will likely reach and exceed the goal of reducing smoking among women to 5.3 percent by 2025. Meanwhile, nations will likely not meet the goal of reducing smoking among men to 25.6 percent by 2025.

Tobacco use and secondhand smoke contribute to about 3 million deaths per year, including heart attacks and stroke, according to WHO. Yet many people do not know that such health risks are associated with tobacco.

WHO reported that more than 60 percent of the Chinese population does not know that smoking can cause heart attacks, and over half of adults in Indonesia and India do not know that smoking can cause strokes.

“Governments have the power in their hands to protect their citizens from suffering needlessly from heart disease,” said Douglas Bettcher, MD, PhD, MPH, WHO director for the prevention of noncommunicable diseases, in a news release. “Measures that reduce the risks to heart health posed by tobacco include making all indoor public and workplaces completely smoke-free and promoting use of tobacco package warnings that demonstrate the health risks of tobacco.”

To read the report, visit [www.who.int/tobacco/publications/surveillance/trends-tobacco-smoking-second-edition/en/](http://www.who.int/tobacco/publications/surveillance/trends-tobacco-smoking-second-edition/en/).

*   Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association