Facts about cigarettes and smoking

Global tobacco use:

• There are more than 1 billion smokers in the world, with China (30% of world’s smokers), India (11.2%) and Indonesia (4.8%) representing the top 3 countries.
• Tobacco use is increasing globally, although it is decreasing in high-income countries. As governments in developed countries started implementing policies to reduce smoking, tobacco companies are shifting their focus to third-world countries. Now more than 80% of the world’s smokers live in low- and middle-income countries.
• Tobacco use kills 5.4 million people a year, more than tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria combined. It kills one person every 6 seconds.
• Tobacco kills up to half of all users. It is a risk factor for 6 of the 8 leading causes of deaths in the world.

Control and prevention:

• It is proven scientifically that “light,” “mild” or “low-tar” products do not reduce health risk. These terms are misleading and deceptive.
• Raising taxes (and therefore prices) is the most effective way to reduce tobacco use, especially to young people. A mere 10% price increase may cause a 8% tobacco use drop in low- and middle-income countries.
• But whatever income governments receive from tobacco taxes, it is not used to prevent tobacco use. Tobacco tax revenues are more than 500 times greater than spending on tobacco control.
• Currently only 15 countries (representing 6% of the world’s population) mandate graphic/pictorial warning on tobacco packaging. Singapore is one of them.
• Pictorial warnings on packaging do work:
  

Tobacco use in Indonesia:

• Indonesia joined 167 other countries in signing the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2004, but remains one of four countries that have failed to ratify the treaty. Industry Minister Fahmi Idris rejected calls to do so, saying that 12 million Indonesians depend on tobacco industry for incomes.
• 400,000 Indonesians die every year from smoking-related diseases. Half of all tobacco-related deaths occur during the prime productive age. These deaths result in lost economic opportunities.
• 34.5% of the Indonesian population smoke, and 63.2% of Indonesian males smoke (2004 survey).
• Indonesia and Zimbabwe are the only two countries in the world that still allow cigarette advertising on television.
• More than 1 in 10 students aged 13 to 15 smoke cigarettes. 6 in 10 students are passive smokers. Most Indonesians start smoking as young as 10 years old.
• In the lowest income group, cigarettes spending account for 15% of total household expenditures.
• Poor Indonesian households’ expenditures on cigarettes are 17 times more than what they spend on meat, 15 times more than health care, 9 times more than educational expenses and 5 times more than dairy products.

Sources:
The Jakarta Globe (1, 2)
World Health Organization (Report on Global Tobacco Epidemic)