Smoking-related deaths worldwide jumped 4.7% over 25-year period

April 7, 2017

More than 6.4 million deaths all over the world in 2015 were smoking and tobacco-related, according to a new study. This figure shows a 4.7% increase in the number of tobacco-related deaths in over 25 years, from 1990 to 2015.

The Global Burden of Diseases report was based on smoking habits in 195 countries and territories between 1990 and 2015.

The report shows smoking causes one in 10 deaths worldwide, the study said, with half of them in just four countries – China, India, the US and Russia.

Despite decades of tobacco control policies, population growth has seen an increased number of smokers, it warned.

Researchers said mortality could rise further as tobacco companies aggressively target new markets, especially in the developing world.”Despite more than half a century of unequivocal evidence of the harmful effects of tobacco on health, today, one in every four men in the world is a daily smoker,” said senior author Dr. Emmanuela Gakidou.

“Smoking remains the second largest risk factor for early death and disability, and so to further reduce its impact we must intensify tobacco control to further reduce smoking prevalence and attributable burden.”

The study also found that nearly one billion people smoked daily in 2015 – one in four men and one in 20 women. Although this was a reduction from the 1990 figures – one in three men and one in 12 women who lit up in 1990 – population growth meant there was an increase in the overall number of smokers, up from 870 million in 1990.

Some countries had succeeded in efforts to help people quit, mostly through a combination of higher taxes, warnings on packages and education programs, the study said.

Over the 25-year period, Brazil had seen the percentage of daily smokers drop from 29% to 12% among men and from 19% to 8% among women.But, the report said, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines saw no change from 1990 to 2015.Russia saw smoking among women rise by 4% over the same period and similar trends were emerging in parts of Africa, the authors warned.

Tags: featured, smoking