In Germany fewer cigarettes are smoked, but the consumption of shisha water pipe tobacco continues to rise significantly. And when it comes to alcohol, Germany remains a “high-consumption country” in international comparison, as from the “Yearbook Addiction 2022” the German Head Office for Addiction Issues. Tens of thousands of people across the country die every year from the effects of smoking and drinking alcohol, experts emphasized in the report published on Tuesday.
According to this, the consumption of ready-made cigarettes was 71.8 billion in 2021 and was 2.8 percent lower than in the previous year. With a per capita consumption of 863 cigarettes in this sub-area, this is the lowest value since reunification. In the case of hand-rolled fags, consumption fell by 5.6 percent to an amount equivalent to about 37.3 billion hand-rolled cigarettes. Pipe tobacco, on the other hand, increased significantly by 40 percent to almost 8,400 tons. “The reason for this is the continued popularity of the special water pipe tobacco, which is smoked in shishas primarily by adolescents and young adults,” says the report.
In 2021, 29.4 billion euros were spent on tobacco products in Germany. In 2020, according to the latest figures, 24 percent of women and 34 percent of men aged 18 and over smoked. According to the latest figures, around 127,000 people died in 2018 as a result of smoking. The overall economic costs, for example for the treatment of tobacco-related diseases, are estimated to be more than 97 billion euros annually.
62,000 alcohol-related deaths
There is still a lot to be done in terms of prevention and control policy, said DHS Managing Director Christina Rummel. The measures taken so far have led to a decline, but that is far from enough. That also applies to alcohol. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were 62,000 alcohol-related deaths in Germany within a year. The number refers to the year 2016, there is no more recent one, since the WHO only carries out the study among 195 countries at longer annual intervals, explained Rummel.
Progress has been made – especially in a long-term comparison: while in 1970 every German citizen aged 15 and over consumed an average of 14.4 liters of pure alcohol, in 2019 it was 10.2 liters. Nevertheless: “Too much alcohol is drunk in Germany.”
What traces is the ongoing pandemic leaving behind? Corona has also severely affected the mental health of the population, the experts emphasize. In crises, many people increasingly try to use addictive substances to compensate for their stress. However, it cannot be concluded from this that the Germans have become more addicted to Corona.
From the point of view of addiction help, the hardships caused by the pandemic are particularly difficult for young people and often aggravate the situation for people who already had psychosocial or health problems. “Prevention, early intervention, advice, treatment and addiction self-help are therefore all the more needed to support those at risk of addiction and those suffering from addiction,” warned prevention officer Christine Kreider. And: “More than ever, we have to take care of particularly vulnerable groups in the population, such as children from addict families.”