Global crises disrupt effort to get millions to quit smoking, report says

LONDON: The Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and wars have combined to hamper global governments’ plans to reduce tobacco use, derailing efforts to get an estimated 95 million people to stop smoking, a report endorsed by 57 campaign groups said on Friday.

Governments had planned to reduce smoking rates among people over 15 by 30 percent between 2010 and 2025 as part of an action plan tied to global sustainable development targets agreed in 2015.

But the timeline to achieve the goal was extended an extra five years in 2024 as other priorities pushed countries to divert resources away from implementing a World Health Organisation treaty on tobacco control signed by 168 countries.

“This ... delay represents an estimated 95 million additional tobacco users, who would otherwise have quit by 2025,” said the report, submitted to the UN Economic and Social Council, which oversees global sustainable development.

While governments have succeeded in reducing the number of smokers, the failure to hit the 30 percent reduction target means that 1,207,800,000 people are still smoking globally, instead of the target of 1,112,400,000, based on a Reuters calculation using smoking rates and population figures provided in the report.