The fight against smoking in Latin America improves, but the electronic cigarette endangers the achievements

Some 900 million people in 35 countries in the Americas, 96% of the population, have at least one of the six tobacco control measures recommended by the World Health Organization50% more than those registered in 2007, reported this Monday the Pan American Health Organization.

The Report on tobacco control for the Region of the Americas 2022 iIt indicates that 26 of the 35 countries in the region have reached the maximum level of application of at least one of these orders, but in others, such as raising tobacco taxes, progress has been slow, and nine countries have yet to take any action.

Progress in applying the six standards, known as MPOWER* and established by the World Health Organization in 2008, contributed to reducing the number of consumers, who went from representing 28% of the region’s population in 2000 to 16.3% in 2020, the second lowest figure in the world at that level.

To this achievement it should be added that South America became in 2020 the first subregion of the American continent where smoking is absolutely prohibited in closed public places, at work and on public transport.

The agency recalls that tobacco use is the main risk factor in six of the eight leading causes of death in the world, as well as for the four most preventable and prevalent non-communicable diseases: cardiovascular, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory conditions.

The director of the Organization’s Department of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health stated that “tobacco causes almost a million deaths annually in the region and is the only legal consumer product that kills up to half of those who consume it.”

Anselm Hennis stressed that “in the face of this enormous threat, the response must be equally aggressive. The control measures work and we must advance more quickly in the application of all of them”.

Electronic cigarettes, the new threat on the horizon

The study also warns about the high availability and accessibility of new products that may contain nicotine, such as electronic cigarettes, and warns about misleading claims used by the tobacco industry to win over consumers and enter new markets.

The agency recommends that governments establish regulations that prevent non-smokers from starting to use these products, that prevent tobacco consumption from becoming normalized in society, and that protect future generations.

Seven countries in the Americas prohibit the sale of electronic nicotine delivery systems. Five of those nations and thirteen others took partial steps to ban their use, limit their advertising, promotion and sponsorship, or required warnings on their packaging. On the contrary, fifteen do not impose any type of regulatory framework

Study Findings

The study found that during the past year out of 35 countries in the Americas:

• Twenty-four apply measures to protect against exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke
• Twenty-two use large pictorial warnings about the dangers of smoking on packages of tobacco products
• Ten have surveillance systems with recent, periodic and representative data on tobacco use in both adults and youth
• Six offer comprehensive help to quit smoking
• Nine establish comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship
• Three apply indirect taxes to cigarettes that represent 75% or more of their retail price.
• The regional average of tobacco consumption is 21.3% in men and 11.3% in women, compared to the global average of 36.7% in men and 7.8% in women.

• Of the 35 member states of the Organization, Brazil reported the lowest prevalence (6.9%), while Dominica reported the highest (25.3%).
• Among the 26 countries in the Region with information on electronic cigarettes, the United States currently has the highest prevalence of consumption of this type of cigarette at the regional level in the young population (19.6%); and Brazil, the lowest (0.2%).
• Only six Member States (Brazil, Canada, El Salvador, Jamaica, Mexico and the United States) have made available to the population free national quitlines, accessible nicotine replacement therapy and support services to quit smoking. tobacco
• Only three countries are implementing measures to ensure that total indirect taxes represent 75% or more of the retail price of tobacco products

*The six MPOWER measures are:

1. Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies
2. Protect the population from tobacco smoke
3. Offer help to quit tobacco
4. Warn of the dangers of tobacco
5. Enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship
6. Increase taxes on tobacco