According to an official statement, the World Health Organization on Tuesday urged nations in the Southeast Asia Region to step up efforts to reduce tobacco and e-cigarette use. It was mentioned that vaping is becoming more popular and that tobacco consumption in the region is still the highest in the world despite a sharp decline over time.
“The region still has the highest number of people using tobacco, which puts them at risk of life-threatening diseases such as cancer, respiratory and heart disease. Urgent measures are also needed to control e-cigarettes, which have not been proven to be effective for smoking cessation. We must do all we can to control tobacco and e-cigarette use to protect health and save lives,” said Saima Wazed, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia.
As per the latest trends released this year, the tobacco consumption rate in the WHO South-East Asia Region dropped from 68.9% in 2000 to approximately 43.7% in 2022. It is estimated that 411 million people in the region are still tobacco users. There are approximately 11 million adolescent tobacco users in the 13–15 age range, making up nearly 30% of the global total, and 280 million smokeless tobacco users, or nearly 77 percent of all tobacco users worldwide. In many countries, the use of e-cigarettes is on the rise, especially among youth, and it’s not uncommon for them to be combined with traditional cigarettes.
Thailand, which has been tracking e-cigarette use, reported a steep rise in e-cigarette use among school-aged children of 13 to 15 years, from 3.3 per cent in 2015 to 17.6 per cent in 2022.
WHO is committed to support policies aimed at countering the tobacco and e-cigarette industries’ interference for safeguarding the health of the over 2 billion people in the Region, the Regional Director said.
While DPR Korea, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Timor-Leste have banned e-cigarettes, Maldives regulates e-cigarettes as tobacco products, according to an official statement.
The region’s nations have made great strides in the fight against tobacco over time. The highest decline in tobacco use among all WHO regions was seen in men, who went from 68.9% in 2000 to 43.7% in 2022, and women, who went from 33.5% in 2000 to 9.4% in 2022. The region is on track to meet the NCD 2025 target of a 30% decrease in tobacco use by 2025, along with the WHO African Region.
