Despite anti-smoking campaigns, the number of cigarette smokers continues to increase. One in ten deaths is associated with tobacco addiction – warns the Global Burden of Diseases report published by the Lancet. The worst situation is in China, Indonesia and Our Country.
The author of the study, Dr. Emmanuel Gakidou emphasizes that the number of people addicted to tobacco is still growing. While in 1990 870 million people smoked cigarettes every day in the world, today there are 933 million of them. The report does not include those who only occasionally smoke or use electronic cigarettes.
The number of annual deaths from smoking has also increased to 6,4 million. From 1990 to 2015, it increased by 4,7%, although the percentage of men addicted to nicotine fell from 35%. to 25 percent, and women – from 8 percent. up to 5 percent In China alone, 1 million people die each year from smoking-related diseases.
Dr. Gakidou emphasizes that one in four men and one in twenty women smoke, so further anti-smoking campaigns are necessary. In Our Country, the percentage of women addicted to tobacco increased by 1990% between 2015 and 4. Still the same proportion of smokers is in Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Brazil is a positive example, where the number of nicotine addicts has been systematically decreasing thanks to the intensive anti-smoking campaign that has been carried out for years.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, the number of Americans smoking fell from 45 million in 2005 to 40 million in 2014. This means that the percentage of smokers there fell from 21 to 17 percent. and is the lowest in half a century. In 1964, when the first campaigns to stop the addiction were launched in the United States, one in two Americans smoked.
The CDC emphasizes that smoking continues to be a huge health problem. Only in the United States, tobacco addiction is responsible for 480. deaths per year, and annual health costs are estimated at $ 300 billion.
In Poland, anti-smoking campaigns began in the early 90s and since then the number of smokers has started to decline. While in 1980, 11,4 million Poles (42,5% of the population) smoked, in 2012, 8,8 million (27,6%).
The first countries declare freedom from tobacco smoke. New Zealand has announced that it wants to be tobacco-free by 2025. Such countries are considered to be in which no more than 5 percent. society is dependent on tobacco. Hong Kong and Singapore intend to achieve this in 2020.
What does addiction lead to? Smoking cigarettes promotes the development of lung cancer. People who smoke are much more obese and have cardiovascular problems.