Geneva, 16 January 2024 (dpa/MIA) - The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the number of tobacco users worldwide has fallen by 19 million over the past two years. This is despite the fact that the world's population has grown, the WHO reported in Geneva on Tuesday.

It estimates the total number of users today at 1.25 billion people. However, WHO Director for Health Promotion, Rüdiger Krech, said there was a marked difference in Europe, where the rate of women using tobacco is sometimes twice as high as the global average, and it is falling more slowly than in other regions of the world.

Tobacco use includes smoking, but also chewing tobacco and the use of snuff. The WHO is also concerned with e-cigarettes, which do not contain tobacco but nicotine-containing liquids. It says these are as just as dangerous to health as tobacco products.

Krech described the tobacco industry's activities in the field of e-cigarettes aimed at primary school children as criminal.

He referred to thousands of flavours such as "gummy bears" or "vanilla ice cream", which are hardly ever created for adults.

He welcomed the ban on e-cigarettes in some countries and called on others to strictly regulate the products. All flavours should be banned, Krech said, and added that e-cigarettes made children addicted to nicotine.

While one in three adults in the world still used tobacco in 2000, this figure had fallen to one in five by 2022, the WHO reported.

A total of 56 countries are well on the way to achieving the target of reducing tobacco consumption by 30% by 2025 compared to 2010.

The WHO praised Brazil in particular, which has already achieved a 35% reduction, and the Netherlands, which has almost reached 30%.

WHO says South-East Asia has the highest proportion of tobacco users in the population. The proportion there is falling significantly and, according to current trends, the region should be in a better position than Europe by 2030. In Europe, an average of 23% of people are still expected to use tobacco in 2030.

MIA file photo