Tobacco use falls in India

The incidence of tobacco use in India dropped by 6.0 percentage points between 2009/10 and 2016/17, according to a story in the latest issue of the BBM Bommidala Group newsletter citing the results of the second Global Adult Tobacco Survey 2016/17 (GATS-2).

The fall in the incidence of tobacco use from 34.6 percent to 28.6 percent means that there are now 8,100,000 fewer tobacco users in India than there were in 2009/10.

But even at 28.6 percent, the current incidence means that India has 267,000,000 tobacco users.

The incidence of tobacco use among men is 42.4 percent while that among women is 14.2 percent.

Tobacco usage was down among those aged 15-24 years, with the incidence falling from 18.4 percent in 2009/10 to 12.4 percent in 2016/17.

And according to GATS-2, the mean age of initiation into tobacco use rose from 17.9 years in 2009/10 to 18.9 years in 2016/17.

The survey found that 61.9 percent of adults had considered quitting cigarettes because of health warnings on tobacco packs, while 53.8 percent of bidi smokers and 46.2 percent of smokeless tobacco users had thought about quitting for the same reason.

The percentage of adults who were exposed to environmental tobacco smoke in public places was down from 29 percent in 2009/10 to 23 percent in 2016/17, and the percentage of those exposed to such smoke at home was down from 52 percent to 39 percent.

But the percentage of adults exposed to environmental tobacco smoke in the workplace increased marginally from just under 30 percent to just over 30 percent.

The study was carried out between August 2016 and February 2017 in all of India’s 30 states and in two union territories.