Armenia Has Fourth Highest Smoking Prevalence in World

Source from:  ARKA NEWS AGENCY (am)  01/13/2014

Armenia is the fourth among countries with highest prevalence in tobacco use, BBC reported referring to results of an American research.

East Timor tops the list, followed by Indonesia and Kiribati. Papua-New Guinea is the fifth.

The twin Caribbean islands of Antigua and Barbuda are bottom at 5%.

The total number of smokers is growing edging close to one billion, global figures reveal.

In 2012, 967 million people smoked every day compared with 721 million in 1980, data from 187 countries shows, says the report by report from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).  Around three in 10 men (31%) and one in 20 women (6%) now smoke daily compared with four in 10 men (41%) and one in 10 women (10%) in 1980, Novosti-Armenia reports referring to RIA Novosti.

"Despite the tremendous progress made on tobacco control, much more remains to be done," study co-author Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, said in a statement. Enditem