Fewer people are smoking worldwide, especially women, but only one country in eight is on track to meet a target of reducing tobacco use significantly by 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.

 

世界卫生组织本周四表示，全球吸烟人数特别是女性吸烟者在减少，但仅有八分之一的国家有望在2025年前实现大规模减少烟草使用的目标。

 

Three million people die prematurely¹ each year due to tobacco use that causes cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and stroke, the world's leading killers², it said, marking World No Tobacco Day. They include 890,000 deaths through second-hand³ smoke exposure.

 

The WHO clinched⁴ a landmark⁵ treaty in 2005, now ratified⁶ by 180 countries, that calls for a ban on tobacco advertising⁷ and sponsorship, and taxes to discourage use.

 

"The worldwide prevalence of tobacco smoking has decreased from 27 percent in 2000 to 20 percent in 2016, so progress has been made," Douglas Bettcher, director of the WHO's prevention of noncommunicable diseases department, told a news briefing.

 

Launching the WHO's global report on trends in prevalence of tobacco smoking, he said that industrialized countries are making faster progress than developing countries.

 

"One of the major factors impeding⁸ low- and middle-income countries certainly is countries face resistance by a tobacco industry who wishes to replace clients who die by freely marketing⁹ their products and keeping prices affordable¹⁰ for young people," he added.

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