Cigarette smoking in Brazil drops to less than 15%

(Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia) The Ministry of Health of Brazil reported on Tuesday (10) research Vigitel (Surveillance of Risk and Protective Factors for Chronic Diseases Survey Telephone), where records for the first time since the data passed to be harvested in 2006 that the number of smokers in the country fell from 15.1% in 2010 to 14.8% in 2011. When the research began to be made in 2006, the proportion of smokers in the country was 16.2%.

The research was carried out with Vigitel 54,144 people in 26 Brazilian state capitals and more Brasilia (Federal District)

DATA

•     11.8% of Brazilians are passive smokers – people who do not smoke but live with at least one smoker. Furthermore, 12.2% of people who do not smoke,  work with a smoker friend at work

•     The number of heavy smokers – who smoke over 20 cigarettes a day – and is also dropped by 4.3%.

•     The frequency of smoking remains higher among men (18.1%); with women (12%). However, the male population leads to reduction of smoking – 25% of men reported having stopped smoking.

•     200,000 Brazilians die every year from tobacco-related causes such as cardiovascular disease, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (chronic bronchitis and emphysema).

Public spending in Brazil with smoking: $ 19 million per year with diagnosis and treatment of diseases caused by smoking.

Main Cities in Brazil
The capital cities of the southern region of Brazil recorded the highest percentage of smokers in the country: 22.6% to Porto Alegre, Curitiba  with 20,2% followed by 19, 2% of  Sao Paulo that is the third city in the ranking with 19.3%.

The Brazilian cities with less smokers are : Maceio (7.8%), Salvador (8.6%), Aracaju (9.4%) and Joao Pessoa (9.4%). In Brasilia, the Federal District the percentage is 13.5% and in Rio de Janeiro is 14.1%.

According to Dr. Marcos Nascimento, medical advisor  of @PulmaoSA,  ” Together with a greater prevention aimed in women, youth and children, these data point to the need to implement  anti tobacco policies also regionalized in order to obtain a greater reduction in consumption of tobacco related products and intensify the downward trend of smoking in Brazil. ”

 Strategic Target:

•   “The data also point to the need for more incentives for smoking prevention through school education, since the higher the education, the less likely the person starts to smoke.”
•  Another target for the Brazilian ministry of health, but also to the Ministries of Justice and the Economy of Brazil is about the smuggled cigarettes from Paraguay that is extending its tentacles to the rest of the country and which records a strong consumption in southern Brazil. This double burdens the  brazilaian National treasury because do not raise taxes and cause more than 50 tobacco-related diseases.

• This could be coupled with a policy of substitution of tobacco by other comoditties as wheat / corn / soybeans existing in the southern region of Brazil; it could be substitute by the fruits with high added value like blackberries and blueberries; Or by involving the creation of a differential in the market with fruits and vegetables for example, with low levels of pesticides that could be applied not only to the expanding domestic market but also for the purpose of gaining the international market that demands high levels of food security, complements Dr. Nascimento. “

SOURCES:

Ministry of Health of Brazil – 2011, Vigitel (Surveillance of Risk and Protective Factors for Chronic Diseases Survey Telephone);