WHO: Studies reveal that 38 million children between the ages of 13 and 15 use tobacco

Thirty-eight million children between the ages of 13 and 15 in the world are tobacco users, according to studies carried out by the World Health Organization (WHO) on global trends in smoking.

Despite the fact that access to tobacco-related products is prohibited for minors in the vast majority of countries, the number of child smokers is alarming, with 14 million girls and 25 million boys who use tobacco regularly.

This conclusion is based on the analysis of the results of 1,728 national surveys carried out in 190 countries and which have covered 97% of the world population.

The expert of the WHO, Ruediger Krech, harshly criticized the tobacco industry, which he accused of making “criminal” efforts to recruit women and children, and of using the tobacco pandemic COVID-19 to establish links of influence with the governments of eighty countries.

“The tobacco industry tries to pretend that they are part of the solution, they donate masks, respirators, when clearly tobacco is the cause of a multitude of respiratory diseases. They even propose to develop a vaccine. Their objective is to influence governments and this situation must be reversed since they are helping people to die “, he denounced at a press conference.

The general trend of tobacco consumption reflects a relative decrease in the last 6 years. In the latest survey conducted by the WHO -which does not include electronic cigarettes- an estimated global figure of 1.3 billion tobacco users today, compared to 1.32 billion in 2015.

It is expected that -with the tobacco control measures established in the Framework Convention against Tobacco of the WHO of which 182 countries are part- the number of smokers will be reduced by 30% by 2025 (compared to 2010 figures) which -considering population growth- would represent 1.27 billion.

“We have a long way to go and tobacco companies will continue to use all the tricks to defend the gigantic profits they make from the sale of their deadly products. We encourage all countries to make better use of the many effective tools available to help people quit smoking ”, said the general director of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Among the data highlighted by the studies is that in the last year 22.3% of the world population used tobacco; 36.7% of all men and 7.8% of women.

Regarding regional trends in 2020, Southeast Asia is the region with the most smokers (29% of its total population), but at the same time it is the geographical area where consumption is reducing most rapidly.

Instead, Africa it is the one with the lowest rate, 10% of the total population.

European women stand out as the most smokers. 18% of European women use tobacco, a figure significantly higher than the rest of the regions.

Countries with a high-middle-income level are the most reluctant to reduce tobacco in contrast to countries with lower income, whose progress is faster, although the report warns that this trend could be altered by the low quality of the data collected among the latter.