Tobacco use declines — except in the Middle East and Africa
In these regions, 180-million men are predicted to be smoking by 2025, twice as many as in 2000, with experts saying taxing tobacco is still the best deterrent
As tobacco use has steadily declined in most of the world, two large regions are bucking the trend: in the Middle East and Africa, 180-million men are predicted to be smoking by 2025 — twice as many as in 2000. Smoking rates are rising fastest in low-and middle-income countries in these regions, where control measures are relatively weak and tobacco is marketed mainly to men. To reverse this, governments need to more firmly confront the tobacco industry’s efforts to recruit the next generation of smokers. In Nigeria, where smoking rates have climbed with higher incomes, retailers have begun selling cigarettes in single sticks from kiosks as close as 9m from schools. In Egypt, the number of smokers has almost doubled since 2000, to 14.4-million. Water pipes, known as shishas, are popular in cafés, where smoking restrictions don’t apply. Public health experts already know how to crack down on such practices and give people incentives to quit, or never start, smoking: by raising tobacc...
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