Tobacco consumption : 16 % of Moroccans smoke on a daily basis in 2015

Smoking kills, an expression that was proven through the Global Burden of Diseases recent report. The global research conducted a large study that sends out alarm signs to smokers worldwide.

According to the GBD study published Wednesday 5th of April on the British medical journal The Lancet, smoking is the second leading risk to early death and disability worldwide in 2015. During this year, tobacco consumption killed more than 6.4 million people. This number rose by 4.7% during the period beginning from 1990 to 2015. Meanwhile, smokers in these 25 years increased by 60 millions jumping from 870 in 1990 to 930 in 2015.

15% of Moroccans smoke daily in 2015

The GBD study suggests that the number of deaths related to smoking will rise in the upcoming years and that is automatically connected to the tobacco industry. The latter is targeting new markets in Sub-Saharan Africa where the number of smokers is forecasted to reach 50% of the population in 2025.

The Moroccan kingdom is also affected by the deadly addiction, 0.9% of women and 16% of men smoke on a daily basis. GBD shows that tobacco consumption in the North African Kingdom is spanned over three main periods. Between 1990 and 2015, 2.5 % of women dropped the habit of smoking while only 1.3% of men did the same. From 1990 to 2005 the number of female smokers decreased reaching 4.3% overcoming male’s percentage that slightly moved to 1.3%. Finally from 2005 to 2015, women increased their tobacco consumption attaining 0.2% in comparison with men who concluded the last phase with 1.6%.

In other corners of the world, the report indicates that the countries that are severely affected by tobacco consumption are : China, India, United States of America and Russia. 52% of deaths occurring in the four nations are related to smoking. Moreover, tobacco is ranked fifth among a list of major risk factors in 109 countries, according to Daly (Disability-adjusted life year), a measure of overall disease burden expressed as the number of years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death.