Tobacco Use Falling Worldwide But Big Tobacco Fighting to Reverse Trend, WHO Says

The number of adult tobacco users has dropped steadily in recent years, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday, but it warned Big Tobacco is working hard to reverse that trend.

In 2022, about one-in-five adults around the world were smokers or consumed other tobacco products, compared to one-in-every-three in 2000, the United Nations health agency said.

A fresh report looking at trends in the prevalence of tobacco use between 2000 and 2030 showed that 150 countries were successfully reducing it, the WHO said.

Caution advised But while smoking rates are declining in most countries, the WHO warned that tobacco-related deaths were expected to remain high for years to come.

Currently, tobacco use is still estimated to kill more than eight million people each year, including an estimated 1.3 million non-smokers who are exposed to second-hand smoke, WHO statistics show.

"Countries implementing strong tobacco control measures can expect to wait about 30 years between turning the prevalence rate from increasing to decreasing and seeing an associated turnaround in the number of deaths due to tobacco," Tuesday's report said.

And while the number of smokers has steadily shrunk, the WHO said the world was set to miss its goal of a 30-percent drop in tobacco use between 2010 and 2025.

Fifty-six countries around the world are expected to hit that target, including Brazil, which has already slashed tobacco use by 35 percent since 2010.

Six countries have seen tobacco use rise since 2010 -- the Republic of Congo, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Moldova and Oman.

Overall, the world is on track to shrink tobacco use by a quarter over the 15-year period to 2025, the report said.

Big Tobacco not sitting idly by While celebrating the advances that have been made, the WHO warned that the tobacco industry was intent on rolling them back.

"Good progress has been made in tobacco control in recent years but there is no time for complacency," said Ruediger Krech, director of the WHO's health promotion department.

"I'm astounded at the depths the tobacco industry will go to pursue profits at the expense of countless lives," he said.

"We see that the minute a government thinks they have won the fight against tobacco, the tobacco industry seizes the opportunity to manipulate health policies and sell their deadly products."

The WHO urged all countries to maintain and strengthen control policies and to fight "tobacco industry interference".

A particular focus, it said, should be on gathering better data on tobacco use among adolescents, especially for newer so-called smokeless products.

The report said that on average, around 10 percent of 13- to 15-year-olds globally use one or more types of tobacco.

That amounts to at least 37 million adolescents, including at least 12 million who use new smokeless tobacco products.

But the report stressed these numbers were an underestimate since more than 70 countries provide no data.

This was worrying because "countries need these data to counter tobacco and associated industries' claims that adolescents are not being targeted as new clients," it said.

The available data suggests the industry attempts to undermine countries' efforts to dissuade young people from using tobacco products.

"Young people are still reporting regular use of the products, easy access to purchasing them and low concerns about becoming addicted," the report said.

"Gathering data from adolescents on their knowledge, attitudes and practices is the most powerful way to combat the industry and shape effective policies that prevent initiation of tobacco use."

“The world was a better place when more people smoked tobacco.”

I agree. I don’t claim it as healthy but people can function well while smoking.

The drugs the Regime promotes cause obesity, listlessness, paranoia, mental decay and dysfunction.

When the Globohomo Regimes of the West are banning tobacco, while legalizing and promoting dope, fentanyl, hallucinogens and all hard drugs and opiates, you know that the supposed concern with “public health” is not genuine.

You can draw a very bright line from the successful weaponization of anti-tobacco sentiment, and the destruction of rights, specifically those of commercial property owners such as the owners of cafes, restaurants, bars, stores, environmentalism, and the knock-on effects on civil liberties during COVID-1984.

In 1995, California was the first state to enact a statewide smoking ban for restaurants. I worked in NYC when the idea to ban smoking in bars and clubs gained steam, and ultimately passed in 2002. It sparked a citywide debate, with the pro-ban people gaining the upper hand. I mean, how can you defeat leftist-based emotional argument of "I won't die of secondhand smoke and my clothes won't smell"?

And there was much rejoicing. Except...what really happened was a sort-of violation of the Takings clause. What all the anti-smokers et al achieved was the sanctioning of the state to tell commercial property owners what can and can't happen on their property, without compensation.

NY has moved beyond bars, clubs, offices, and public places to outdoors. Other municipalities have enacted similar takings, erm, bans. Nobody fights for commercial property rights anymore. Marx and Engels are laughing in hell.

Second-hand smoke is what economists call an externality - an indirect cost or benefit to an uninvolved third party that arises as an effect of another party's (or parties') activity. Guess what else is an externality? Air pollution, specifically exhaust from motor vehicles. The same folks who complain about the smell of smoke are likely driving cars with an internal combustion engine. This may be only one example of an externality, but the whole environmental movement rests on "the need for government to regulate industry to make the air clean." You can draw a straight line from the “ban smoking indoors” movement to Greta Thunberg.

The whole concept of negative externalities, which worked so swimmingly in the anti-smoking crusade, got weaponized in Covid. When the shots that were granted EUAs rolled out, many people refused to take them. We then saw the pro-shot talking heads brandish anti-smoking arguments - remember "The bottom line: We’re going to protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated co-workers." Regarding masks, we got Mandatory masking? What smoking bans can teach us

Despite well-documented health consequences of indoor smoking, efforts to ban the behavior were met with intense political resistance and an all-too-familiar civil liberties debate, just as we see today. But science, combined with social and political initiatives that were responsive to public concerns, eventually spurred a large-scale shift in public opinion around smoking bans. From this experience, three lessons can inform how to improve adherence to universal masking -- a life-saving public health measure: 1. Frame masking as a workers' rights issue, 2. Mandates are necessary because they work, and 3. Don't lose sight of the last mile.

I don’t smoke, and I also don’t like smelling like a chimney (or nowadays, like a pot dispensary) after a night at a club or restaurant. But liberty isn’t always clean and antiseptic; second-hand smoke is a cost of freedom.

Let’s inhale smoke into our lungs. Single dumbest idea ever.

Bob Newhart had a routine about this.

What people seem to forget that in the past people were exposed to smoke constantly. Smoke from the fireplace, smoke from the coal-burning furnace or fireplace, smoke from the wood-fired stove.

Tobacco smoke from a pipe or a good cigar seemed to provide contentment and relaxation as well, no doubt, some long-term health risks.

Problem was/is it takes a very long time to kill the people it kills. My dad was a very heavy life-long smoker and he did die from throat cancer, but at 83. Telling a 14 year-old that he’ll die from smoking in 70 years makes a very little impression on him.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.