Tobacco use continues to decline in Canada and around the world, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO). About one in five adults worldwide used tobacco in 2022, up from one in three in 2000.
In Canada, the decline has been even more significant: tobacco consumption fell from 28.3 percent of adults in 2000 to just 11.4 percent in 2022.
“Good progress has been made in tobacco control in recent years, but there is no time for complacency,” Dr. Ruediger Krech, director of WHO’s Department of Health Promotion, said in a news release.
Southeast Asia currently has the highest percentage of tobacco users, at 26.5 percent of adults, according to the Geneva-based WHO, closely followed by Europe at 25.3 percent. While both rates are declining, the WHO expects Europe to have the highest percentage of users by 2030.
Tobacco use rates among women in Europe are more than double the global average and are falling more slowly than in other regions, the WHO says. Currently, 82 percent of the world’s 1.25 billion tobacco users are men.
“The largest number of female smokers per WHO Region is the 65 million who live in the European Region, representing more than 40 percent of all female smokers in the world,” the report explains. “High-income countries have the highest proportion of female smokers: 50 percent of all female smokers, or 76 million smokers.”
According to the WHO, an estimated 3.7 million Canadians currently use tobacco, including 2.2 million men and 1.5 million women.
While 150 countries are successfully reducing tobacco use, the WHO says only 56 are on track to meet a voluntary international goal of reducing consumption by 30 percent between 2010 and 2025. The WHO expects Canada to exceed that goal with a reduction of 44.6 percent. while it is estimated that the United States will achieve a reduction of 15.5 percent.
However, there are several outliers in the overall trend. At least nine countries, including Croatia, Slovakia and Qatar, are unlikely to see significant change, while six are expected to see increased tobacco use over time: Congo, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Oman and Moldova.
In an effort to curb smoking and tobacco use in Canada, new rules will come into effect this year requiring health warnings to be placed directly on products such as individual cigarettes.
Previous regulations introduced simple, standardized brown packaging for tobacco products in 2019, while large graphic health warnings were required in 2011.
In 2008, Yukon became the last Canadian province or territory to ban smoking in indoor public spaces. Tobacco products are also heavily taxed, while advertising and corporate sponsorship are largely restricted.
“While prevalence is declining in most countries, tobacco-related deaths can be expected to remain high until all people who still use tobacco in 2022, or who used tobacco for a long period of their lives , have passed the years in which they are most at risk of dying from a tobacco-related disease,” the report concludes.
“Countries that implement strong tobacco control measures can wait about 30 years between the prevalence rate going from increasing to decreasing and seeing an associated change in the number of deaths due to tobacco.”
Faced with “interference from the tobacco industry”, the WHO urges countries to strengthen tobacco control measures and keep nicotine products such as vaporizers and electronic cigarettes out of the reach of children.
“I am amazed at the lengths the tobacco industry will go to make profits at the expense of countless lives,” Krech said. “We see that the moment a government believes it has won the fight against tobacco, the tobacco industry seizes the opportunity to manipulate health policies and sell its deadly products.”