The seventh edition of the ‘The Tobacco Atlas’ report, an anti-smoking initiative emanating from the American Cancer Society, shows the average per capita consumption of cigarettes in Kuwait is 1,849 annually, which is the second highest rate in the region after Lebanon, whose per capita consumption rage is 1,955 cigarettes, and more than Libya 1,764. The annual per capita smoking rate in the UAE is 438 cigarettes and for Saudi Arabia it is 485.
The report revealed there are 1.1 billion smokers in the world and hundreds of millions who use other tobacco products, stressing that cigarettes are still a global epidemic.
According to the report, there are devastating health and economic costs of global tobacco use. In 2019 alone, tobacco use caused more than 8.67 million deaths worldwide distributed over 6.53 million men and 2.14 million women, in addition to economic losses estimated at 2 trillion dollars.
Most deaths are attributed to smoking, but 1.3 million died from exposure to secondhand smoke. In 2019, nearly half of all tobacco-related deaths occurred in countries with high HDI (human development index) scores.
However, deaths from tobacco-related diseases are expected to increase in the coming years in countries with a low HDI.
