Fewer smokers, more deaths. This is the assessment drawn up by a hundred scientists as part of the report Global Burden of Disease published in The Lancet and reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP). Between 1990 and 2015, the number of deaths attributed to tobacco increased by 4.7%, or 6.4 million deaths.
Awareness campaigns, restrictive measures and increases in tobacco prices have made it possible in several countries to curb consumption. If in 1990 one in three men and one in 12 women smoked daily, twenty-five years later these percentages have dropped to one in four and one in 20 respectively. amounted to 930 million in 2015 against 870 million in 1990.
To restore its margins, the tobacco industry is therefore targeting new markets, such as emerging countries. “The number of men and women who smoke in sub-Saharan Africa will thus increase by 50% between 2010 and 2025,” the news agency said.
Similarly, tobacco-related mortality is expected to be concentrated in a small number of countries. Cigarettes are responsible for one in ten deaths worldwide, and half of the victims live in Russia, China, India or the United States. “Mortality in low- and middle-income countries is likely to be ‘huge’ in coming years, warns John Britton, a British specialist, in The Lancet. Similarly, tobacco remains “the second risk factor for early death and disability”.
