The figures from the Tobacco Atlas report, revealed that smoking rates have declined globally for the first time on record, a phenomenon described as a potential tipping point by the authors. The document said that globally, there are 1.1 billion smokers and 200 million more people who use other tobacco products.
Sadly however, population growth in Africa, the eastern Mediterranean and the Western Pacific regions, meant there were still increasing numbers of smokers in these areas, as well as an increase among adults in at least 10 countries in Africa, as well as among young people.
“The industry is still preying on emerging economies in ways that will lock in harms for a generation or more,” said report author Jeffrey Drope, public health professor at the University of Illinois.
Most teens use e-cigs on an experimental basis
Meanwhile, another recent study published in Addiction analyzed data gathered from 47 countries between 2015 and 2018, with the intention of measuring teen vaping rates worldwide.
The study titled, “Association between the implementation of tobacco control policies and adolescent vaping in 44 lower-middle, upper-middle, and high-income countries,” gathered data from 51,960 teens aged between 13 and 15 years from lower-middle, upper-middle, and high-income countries who participated in the World Health Organization’s Global Youth Tobacco Survey.
The research team found that approximately 1 in 12, or 8.6%, of adolescents reported vaping in the past 30 days, while 1 in 60, or 1.7%, said they vaped for more than 10 days in the past month. These figures suggest that the majority of teens who vaped did so on an experimental basis and do not use the products regularly.
Read Further: Reuters
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