The Global Adult Tobacco Survey was released recently and it surveyed 14 middle and low-income countries. Those countries include Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Mexico, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay and Vietnam. The survey data was compared to data from the U.K and the U.S. and it accounts for 3 billion people over 15 and represents 852 million tobacco customers.
The survey found that manufactured cigarettes are the most used tobacco product in those countries. Cigarettes outdo other products like pipes, cigars, papirosy, bidis, waterpipes and kreteks. In India, smokeless tobacco is the most popular. “These products are technologically designed to mask harshness, provide particular taste sensations, and increase nicotine delivery.”
In low and middle-income countries, 48.6 percent of men smoke and 11.6 percent of women smoke. But, in the demographic of women between the ages of 25-34, the average starting age for smoking was the same for men and women. The survey found that in the countries of Turkey, Russian and Ukraine, people are starting to smoke more often. The survey also found that quit rates are very low. In Russia, China, India, Egypt and Bangladesh, the quit rates are under 20 percent. In the low-income countries, one dollar was spent on control of tobacco for every 9,100 US dollars made from tobacco taxes.
The survey’s data shows that as the number continue to increase, it is possible that the world could see one billion people killed in this century from tobacco.