The Covid-19 Pandemia, climate change and wars combined to hinder the plans of world governments to reduce tobacco consumption, disrupting efforts to ensure that about 95 million people stop smoking, according to a report backed by 57 associations.
Governments intended to reduce smoking rates between those over 15 years of age by 30% between 2010 and 2025 as part of an action plan linked to the global sustainable development objectives agreed in 2015.
However, the deadline to achieve the objective was extended five more years, until 2024, since other priorities pushed countries to divert resources from the application of a World Health Organization Treaty on tobacco control signed by 168 countries.
The report, presented to the UN Economic and Social Council, which supervises the sustainable world development, indicates that “this delay represents about 95 million additional tobacco consumers that, otherwise, would have stopped smoking in 2025”.
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Delays in smokers reduction could cause more deaths
Although governments managed to reduce the number of smokers, not having reached the 30% reduction objective means that 1,207,800,000 people continue to smoking worldwide, instead of the objective of 1,112,400,000, according to a calculation based on smoking rates and population figures provided in the report.
The report, published by Action on Smoking and Health Canada and backed by Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, Cancer Research UK and other organizations, warned that, if maintained, delays could cause millions of additional deaths due to tobacco consumption.
The UN already recognized that the shortage of funds, geopolitical tensions and problems related to pandemics have moved the world of most of the 17 sustainable development objectives. These objectives seek, among other issues, reduce poverty and hunger and increase access to health and education.
The groups that supported Ash Canada’s report urged governments to redouble their efforts in tobacco control policies such as tax rise and smoking prohibition.
With Reuters information
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