GENEVA, Oct 6 — The world is smoking less, but the tobacco epidemic is far from over, according to a new World Health Organisation (WHO) report that shows one in five adults remains addicted to tobacco.
Anadolu Ajansi reported that its findings include tobacco use dropping from 1.38 billion people in 2000 to 1.2 billion in 2024. Since 2010, 120 million people have quit, a 27 per cent relative decline.
Yet millions continue to die each year from preventable tobacco-related diseases.
"Millions of people are stopping, or not taking up, tobacco use thanks to tobacco control efforts by countries around the world. In response to this strong progress, the tobacco industry is fighting back with new nicotine products, aggressively targeting young people.
"Governments must act faster and stronger in implementing proven tobacco control policies," said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
For the first time, it also estimated global e-cigarette use, finding more than 100 million users worldwide, including 15 million adolescents.
"E-cigarettes are fuelling a new wave of nicotine addiction. They are marketed as harm reduction but, in reality, are hooking kids on nicotine earlier and risk undermining decades of progress," warned WHO's health determinants, promotion, and prevention director Etienne Krug.
The report also highlighted gender and regional disparities. Women have seen faster declines, reducing prevalence to 6.6 per cent by 2024, while men, who make up more than 80 per cent of tobacco users, are not expected to meet global reduction targets until 2031.
Europe now has the world's highest overall prevalence at 24.1 per cent.
The United Nations agency urged governments to raise taxes, ban advertising, close regulatory loopholes, and expand cessation services.
"Nearly 20 per cent of adult people still use tobacco and nicotine products. We cannot let up now," said WHO's assistant director-general Jeremy Farrar.
