A worrying picture in cigarette consumption: Türkiye ranks first

Chest Diseases Specialist Prof. stated that smoking continues to be an important public health problem in the world. Dr. Şevket Özkaya stated that consumption rates in Türkiye have reached alarming levels.

Özkaya said, "Cigarettes, which the World Health Organization describes as 'the world's fastest-spreading and longest-lasting epidemic', have been decreasing in developed countries in recent years, while their consumption is increasing every year in developing or underdeveloped countries like ours. Although nicotine addiction can develop frequently due to social, economic and sociocultural factors, we know today that Turkey does not leave the top in cigarette consumption in the world. According to research, Türkiye ranks first in the world in the number of average daily cigarette consumption per capita with 17.1. This figure is in Greece." "15.7, 15.5 in Israel and 15.4 in Japan and Austria," he said.

Drawing attention to the size of total cigarette consumption in Türkiye, Özkaya stated that approximately 8 billion packs of cigarettes were sold last year and said, "Our Minister of Health recently gave statistics about cigarettes. Although Turkey ranks second in cigarette consumption in the world, approximately 8 billion packs of cigarettes were sold last year. This means that if there are 80 million people living in Türkiye, everyone has smoked at least 100 packs of cigarettes. Everyone living in Türkiye, including newborn babies, has smoked 100 packs of cigarettes in the last year. "It's coming," he said.

Emphasizing that smoking is a serious health problem not only on an individual but also on a global scale, Prof. Dr. Özkaya stated that smoking caused the premature death of approximately 100 million people throughout the 20th century.

Özkaya said, "Smoking has been one of the world's biggest health problems for decades. During the 20th century, it caused the death of approximately 100 million people, most of them in today's rich countries. The burden of smoking on health is now shifting from high-income countries to low- and middle-income countries. Some estimates suggest that one billion people may die from tobacco in the 21st century. In Türkiye, on average, one in every two men smokes. One in every four women over the age of 18 smokes. These are quite high figures." spoke.

Source: TRT Haber Sağlık RSS (Open Press / Translated Full Text)