By Jamshed Baruah<\/p>\n\n\n\n
GENEVA (INPS Japan\/ IDN) \u2014 Despite the COVID-19 pandemic creating havoc worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO<\/a>) has good news in public health. Its\u00a0Global Tobacco Epidemic 2021 report<\/a>\u00a0says progress is being made in achieving the\u00a0United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3<\/a>: to \u201censure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The report\u2014fourth in a series since 2015\u2014released on November 16, says that 146 countries have at least one effective tobacco demand-reduction measure in place at the highest level, under the WHO Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases 2013\u20132020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This report shows 150 countries are seeing rates of tobacco use decline, with 60 of these countries on track to achieve the ambitious voluntary reduction target of a 30 per cent by 2025. It\u2019s an increase from two years ago, when only 32 countries were on course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Concretely: The number of tobacco\u202fusers continues to decrease globally, going from 1.32 billion in 2015 to 1.30 billion in 2020 and that number is expected to continue to drop to 1.27 billion by 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus says, the numbers are very encouraging, but more work must be done.\u201dWe still have a long way to go, and\u202ftobacco\u202fcompanies will continue to use every trick in the book to defend the gigantic profits they make from peddling their deadly wares,\u201d,Tedros said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to WHO, recent evidence shows that the\u202ftobacco\u202findustry used the COVID-19<\/a> pandemic to build influence with Governments in 80 States. The report urges Member States to accelerate implementation of the measures outlined in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ruediger Krech, Director of WHO Department of Health Promotion, attributed some of the progress to measures aligned with the WHO FCTC, while maintaining that success is \u201cfragile\u201d. He said: \u201cIt is clear that\u202ftobacco\u202fcontrol is effective, and we have a moral obligation to our people to move aggressively in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A newly released WHO\u202fGlobal Investment Case for\u202fTobacco\u202fCessation, also makes the case for investing in cessation interventions. According to the report, contributing US$ 1.68 per capita each year to national toll-free quit lines, SMS-based support, and other interventions could help 152 million\u202ftobacco\u202fusers successfully quit by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The report and the investment case\u202fwere released\u202fright after the ninth session of the Conference of the Parties to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in\u202fTobacco\u202fProducts<\/a>.Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in\u202fTobacco\u202fProducts<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among the key findings of the report is that last year, 22.3 per cent of the global population used\u202ftobacco, 36.7 per cent of all men and 7.8 per cent of the world\u2019s women. About 38 million children between the ages of 13 and 15 currently use\u202ftobacco, 13 million girls and 25 million boys. \u202fWhile it is illegal for minors to purchase\u202fit, the goal is to achieve zero child\u202ftobacco\u202fusers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On average, upper middle-income countries are making the slowest progress, but with data quality low or insufficient in 29 countries, more monitoring is needed to assess a trend. According to WHO, tobacco kills up to half of its users, claiming more than 8 million lives each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The WHO global trend repot points out that of all WHO regions, the steepest decline is in the Americas, where the average user rate dropped from 21 per cent in 2010 to 16 per cent last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Africa, the rate fell from 15 per cent to 10 per cent and the continent continues to have the lowest numbers. In Europe, 18 per cent of women still use\u202ftobacco, substantially more than in any other WHO region, while\u202fall others are on track to reduce\u202fwomen\u2019s usage rates by at least 30 per cent by 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although South-East Asia has the highest rates, with around 432 million users or 29 per cent of its population, it is also the region in which the numbers are declining fastest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The report notes that the Western Pacific is projected to become the region with the highest use among men, with indications showing that more than 45 per cent will still be using\u202ftobacco in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n