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Fall in male tobacco users is “turning point,” says WHO

BMJ 2019; 367 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l7060 (Published 20 December 2019) Cite this as: BMJ 2019;367:l7060
  1. Owen Dyer
  1. Montreal, Canada

The director general of the World Health Organization has hailed the first measured decline in the number of male tobacco users worldwide as “a turning point in the fight against tobacco.”

“For many years now we have witnessed a steady rise in the number of males using tobacco products,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announcing the findings of WHO’s third global report this century into tobacco use trends.1 “But now, for the first time, we are seeing a decline in male use, driven by governments being tougher on the tobacco industry.”

The decline is miniscule—there were 1.093 billion male tobacco users worldwide in 2018 and there will be two million fewer, or 1.091 billion, in 2020. But the …

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