We are not blowing smoke up your ass: the number of smokers in the Philippines has increased 100 percent since 1980, with 14.4 million puff daddies (and mommies) in 2012.
That’s based on a study led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, which measured data from 187 countries.
The findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association as part of a series of tobacco-related articles to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first US Surgeon General’s report on the risks of smoking
Coconuts Manila asked the study’s co-author, Alan Lopez of the University of Melbourne, for findings related to the Philippines.
His figures are alarming: There were 6.2 million male smokers in 1980, and 12.2 million in 2012. Female smokers also increased from 1.1 million in 1980 to 2.2 million in 2012.
“Since we know that half of all smokers will eventually be killed by tobacco, greater numbers of smokers will mean a massive increase in premature deaths in our lifetime,” said Lopez.
The study also measured how many cigarettes on average were consumed per smoker each day in 2012, and the Philippines tallied 21.4.
Mauritania was the highest with 41, or two packs a day.
“The greatest health risks are likely to occur in countries with high prevalence and high consumption,” said the study. Those countries include China, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Korea, the Philippines, Uruguay, Switzerland and Russia, it said.
The highest smoking rates among men in 2012 were in Timor-Leste (61 percent) and Indonesia (57 percent), followed by Armenia (51.5 percent), Russia (51 percent) and Cyprus (48 percent).
Top countries for women smokers were Greece (34.7 percent) and Bulgaria (31.5 percent).
With reporting from AFP.
Photo from Morgue File
