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Every minute 10 million smokers light a cigarette and 15 people die from tobacco: five things to know on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day celebrated on Wednesday by the WHO.
How many smokers?
Out of a population of 8 billion people, smokers are estimated at more than one billion by the World Health Organization (WHO) and The Tobacco Atlas.
Each year, they consume more than 5,000 billion cigarettes, according to The Tobacco Atlas, information center on tobacco of the American NGO Vital Strategies and the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The proportion of smokers has been declining overall for several years, thanks to state anti-smoking measures, such as tax increases, and also to the recent emergence of electronic cigarettes.
A third of the world’s population over the age of 15 smoked in 2000, this proportion has now fallen to nearly 20%.
Where do we smoke the most?
It is in China that we find the greatest number of smokers: the country of 1.4 billion inhabitants, has nearly 300 million smokers (2020 figure from the WHO).
Indonesia is the country with the highest proportion of male smokers: 62.7% of those over 15 years old.
Cigarettes are a scourge that now mainly affects poor countries: 80% of smokers live in low- or middle-income countries.
In Africa and the Middle East, smoking is declining little and in some cases is progressing as in Egypt, Lebanon or Iraq.
How many deaths?
Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death: one person dies every four seconds in the world because of cigarettes.
Active or passive smoking killed nearly 9 million humans in 2019 (“Global Burden of Disease” study published in 2021 in The Lancet).
Cancers, in particular of the lung, infarction, stroke and COPD-type respiratory disorders are the main diseases associated with tobacco.
In the 20th century, tobacco caused 100 million victims (research published in 2009 in Nature), more than the 60 to 80 million deaths of the Second World War combined with the 18 million deaths of the war of 14-18.
Mass smoking could cause 450 million deaths in the first half of the 21st century and is expensive for society: it absorbs 6% of global health expenditure (study coordinated by the WHO, published in 2018 by the journal Tobacco control).
What effects on the planet?
Cigarettes harm not only the lungs and arteries of smokers but also the planet: the production and consumption of tobacco release 84 million tonnes of CO2 per year, equivalent to one-fifth of the pollution from commercial aircraft (WHO figure).
Nearly one million tons of cigarette butts are thrown away every year, with their non-biodegradable cellulose acetate filters. Tobacco cultivation requires 22 billion tons of water each year and its industry produces 25 million tons of solid waste.
A sector in decline?
Is the world of tobacco companies on the decline in the face of the gradual decline in tobacco consumption observed since 2012?
Nothing is less certain, underlines The Tobacco Atlas: in rich countries this powerful industry has diversified into alternative products, first and foremost the electronic cigarette. In countries with medium or low incomes, the tobacco majors continue their “aggressive” price policy and spend crazy sums to fight anti-tobacco measures.
Two American economic analysis offices anticipate over the next five to eight years, an annual increase of around 2.5% in the overall turnover of the sector which would weigh 940 billion dollars in 2023.
For World No Tobacco Day, the WHO calls on farmers to grow edible foodstuffs, rather than tobacco plants, to boost food security, but notes that in Africa the areas devoted to this crop have increased by nearly 20 % in 15 years.