Economic Decline will not reduce Tobacco Use

A lot of studies have found that tobacco smoking is suspected to kill 6 million people worldwide and drain $500 billion from the global economy each year.

In an economic recession, products which seen to give comfort in the midst of stress tend to be sold very well. For example one of such products is tobacco.

Not all the people can understand this fact, that’s why Michael Eriksen, director of Georgia State’s Institute of Public Health, explained: "It’s not well understood, but as people lose jobs, the unemployed and others affected by tough economic times may depend on ’affordable pleasures. The irony is that the more deprived someone is, people will rely on simple pleasures that are unfortunately deadly pleasures."

Since the last edition of the atlas was released in 2006, changes in issues around global tobacco use have been a mixed bag, Eriksen said.

Positive changes include the relatively rapid ratification of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the world’s first public health treaty developed by the World Health Organization. The treaty obligates signatories to commit to actions such as advertising bans and indoor clean air laws to stem tobacco use, illness and death. Excluding the United States, 163 nations have ratified the treaty.

Another positive outcome has been the $500 billion investment by Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg’s human activities in tobacco control.

On the other hand, tobacco companies since 2006 have been able to adapt to changes, and continue to benefit from a preventable cause of illness and death, to the tune of $30 billion in profits.

For example, Russians, who are prodigious smokers, are unlikely to quit the habit because of the crisis. After the collapse of the rouble they only reluctantly switched to cheaper homegrown smokes, and Tobacco Companies, which very sensibly have invested in production facilities in Russia.

According to industry officials, sales of premium cigarette brands, most of which are imported, have suffered in recent months, but cheaper locally produced brands are seeing booming sales.