According to a survey, more people in Germany smoked cigarettes than before during the corona pandemic. Almost 33 percent of people over the age of 14 now smoke, according to the representative long-term study “German Survey on Smoking Behaviour” (Debra). Immediately before the pandemic, the proportion of smokers in Germany was still around 26 to 27 percent.
The increase was particularly noticeable in 2021. It is probably a late consequence of Corona that people are increasingly turning to tobacco products, said the epidemiologist and Debra director Daniel Kotz from the University Hospital in Düsseldorf. He called the development frightening and warned: “Politics have a lot to do if Germany wants to become tobacco-free by 2040.”
In the long term, fewer cigarettes are smoked in Germany than in previous decades. According to the Federal Statistical Office, sales of these tobacco products have more than halved since the early 1990s. While 146.5 billion units were sold in 1991, by 2020 it was around 71.8 billion. In 2020, 1033 cigarettes were smoked per capita. No data was available for 2021.
The consequences of decades of smoking are enormous. According to the Federal Statistical Office, around 75,500 people died in Germany in 2020 as a result of smoking. By far the most common cause of death was cancer. According to this, lung and bronchial cancer, larynx or trachea cancer was the cause of death in a good 46,000 smokers, and around 29,000 smokers died of the lung disease COPD.
In women, the risk of dying from a corresponding tumor has increased by 73 percent within 20 years: According to statistics, around 23 women per 100,000 inhabitants died of lung and bronchial cancer in 2000, and in 2020 it was almost 40. “One reason This could be due to the significantly increased proportion of smokers in the female population since the 1950s,” the Federal Office said. Men have an overall higher risk of dying as a result of tobacco consumption. However, the trend is slightly declining for them. Since the beginning of the century, death rates have fallen from 73 to 68 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.
Billions of cigarette butts pollute the environment every year
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), eight million people worldwide die every year from the effects of tobacco consumption. At the same time, the organization warned that the cultivation of tobacco plants also causes massive damage to the environment and climate. Every year, 600 million trees would have to give way for the tobacco fields, 22 billion tons of water would be used and 84 tons of CO2 would be emitted, the UN organization explained. The CO2 emissions from the tobacco industry correspond to one fifth of the emissions from commercial aviation.
Tobacco is now mainly grown in poorer countries, where arable land and water are often desperately needed to produce food. “Instead, they are used to breed deadly tobacco plants,” says the WHO report.
“Tobacco products are the dirtiest items on the planet, they contain over 7,000 toxic chemicals that they release into the environment when thrown away,” said WHO Director for Health Promotion Rudiger Krech. Approximately 4.5 trillion cigarette butts pollute oceans, rivers, sidewalks, parks, soil and beaches each year. Cigarettes, tobacco products and e-cigarettes also contribute to plastic waste. In this context, the WHO appealed to politicians to consider a ban on cigarette filters. These contained microplastics and are a major contributor to plastic pollution. However, their health benefits have not been proven.
At the same time, the UN authority called on countries and cities to make the industry more responsible for the disposal of tobacco residues. “The cost of removing the waste will be borne by taxpayers,” the report says. That’s around $200 million in Germany alone. In countries like France and Spain or cities like the US metropolis San Francisco, the industry has to pay for the pollution it causes. The WHO called for other countries and cities to follow this example.