Tobacco Use Projected To Decline Among Men Worldwide In 2020; But Shift To E-Cigarettes Unknown Factor

For the first time in two decades, tobacco use is projected to decline among men in 2020, according to a new World Health Organization report on trends in global tobacco use. However, the new report does not consider trends in e-cigarette use, where use may in fact be increasing.

“For many years now we had witnessed a steady rise in the number of males using deadly tobacco products. But now, for the first time, we are seeing a decline in male use, driven by governments being tougher on the tobacco industry,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a press release about the new report.

Based on data collected from 149 countries, global tobacco use has been steadily declining for the past 18 years, from 1.397 billion people in 2000 to 1.337 billion in 2018. But that downward trend had been primarily driven by declining use in women.  About 100 million fewer women used tobacco in 2018 as compared to 2000, and women’s use of tobacco is projected to decline further over the coming five years.

However, over the same 2000-2018 period, the number of men using tobacco actually increased by 40 million people, and males currently represent some 82% of tobacco users.

Yet over just the past year, prevalence of tobacco use in males has plateaued, and it is now projected to begin declining in 2020, the latest data shows. WHO estimates that there will be 2 million fewer male users in 2020 as compared to 2018, and 5 million fewer by 2025.

“Showing that tobacco use can be reversed gives the public health community confidence we can get back on track and meet the global targets of a 30% reduction [in smoking rates] by 2025 as compared to 2010,” Ruediger Krech, director of WHO’s Department of Health Promotion said at a press briefing.

Projections of a decline in male tobacco use for 2020 are not the same across all regions either, the WHO officials cautioned. While fewer men are expected to be seen smoking in the Americas, Europe, and Western Pacific regions, WHO’s South-East Asian region, which currently has the highest proportion of male smokers at 62.5%, is projected to see a slight increase in absolute numbers over the next five years. Numbers of male smokers are also predicted to increase in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean and African regions.

And around the world, 43.8 million children between 13-15 used tobacco in 2018. That number excludes the use of e-cigarettes and other such nicotine delivery devices, which some country specific surveys have found is on the rise in youth in countries such as the United States.

Krech credited the inroads made against tobacco use over the past two decades to increasingly strong policy measures such as: banning smoking in public places, tobacco taxation, and marketing restrictions like plain packaging of tobacco products, as well as bans on marketing aimed at teens and children.  But he said that such measures must be amplified in order to reach the global targets.

“The downwards trend in tobacco use offers a challenge to governments. We cannot be satisfied with a slow decline when over 1 billion people are still using tobacco,” said Krech. “We must dramatically accelerate tobacco control measures to protect current and future generations from tobacco.”

The Unknown Contribution of E-Cigarette Use

Another unknown involves the use of smokeless tobacco devices. Use of e-cigarettes, as welll as other electronic nicotine delivery and heated tobacco devices were all excluded from the analysis, raising questions about whether potential smokers might also be shifting away from traditional tobacco products over to such methods.

Originally marketed as smoking cessation devices, electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) have gained increasing notoriety for allegedly hooking young people onto nicotine at earlier ages. According to the US National Youth Tobacco survey, one of the most comprehensive national surveys that collects data on nicotine consumption annually, the proportion of high-school students who have used an ENDS device at least once shot up to 27.5% in 2019, as compared to only 12% in 2017. Manufacturers have been accused of targeting their marketing directly towards young people, particularly by producing the nicotine liquid pods in a variety of flavors popular among teenagers.

“If there are flavors like chewing gum or strawberry, who is the target audience? Me or my grandchildren,” Krech remarked.

As for whether an increase in e-cigarette use has perhaps led to a decrease in use of other tobacco products, Krech said that WHO could not at this time “say whether that has an impact or not.”  However, he acknowledged that many tobacco smokers are so-called “dual-users” – using both combustible cigarettes and e-cigarettes.

Krech added that WHO is currently collecting data on e-cigarette use and tobacco vaping, and is planning to release a more comprehensive report on the subject in February 2020. Countries have only begun collecting nationally representative data on the use of ENDS in 2013, and currently data from 42 countries is available, with more reports coming in every day.

“There is no “safety” associated with e-cigarettes,” said Krech. “There are a lot of risks associated with e-cigarettes, and we’re going to be a bit more concrete about those risks [in the February report].”

Accelerate Actions to Decrease Tobacco Use

In terms of policy measures, the report finds a clear trend towards more stringent government policies and regulations aimed at reducing tobacco use and second-hand smoke exposures. As of 2018, 137 countries have put into place at least one of the six methods recommended by the WHO in line with guidelines of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

Some 116 of these 137 countries have seen their tobacco use rates decline since implementing the measures, which include stronger measures for monitoring tobacco use; protection against second-hand smoke exposures; quit smoking programmes; awareness raising about tobacco’s dangers; restrictions and bans on tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship of activities; and increased taxes on tobacco products.

The report found that strong declines in average tobacco use prevalence were mostly seen in regions that implemented the policies. This was true for the WHO South-East Asia region, which saw reductions in tobacco use – mostly in smokeless tobacco – after all 11 countries of the region had implemented at least one policy.

“Continuing to reduce tobacco use will help save lives, nurture families, and strengthen communities,” said Krech. “We must dramatically accelerate tobacco control measures to protect current and future generations from tobacco.”

Civil society organizations agreed. Gan Quan, director of Tobacco Control at the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease and a partner in tobacco industry watchdog STOP (Stopping Tobacco Organizations and Products), said in a statement, “The problem is that the tobacco industry continues to undermine such measures all over the world and to market their products aggressively.”

Quan added, “The data is clear: tobacco use falls when governments implement policies that are proven to encourage quitting and deter youth from starting to use tobacco.”

Image Credits: WHO, WHO global report on trends in the prevalence of tobacco use, MomentiMedia/Flickr.

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