India’s smokers moving ‘up market’

Cigarettes are replacing bidis on India’s tobacco-products market, according to a story in Asian Scientist citing a study published in BMJ Global Health.

Smokers are said to be switching to cigarettes ‘possibly’ because of the substantial wage increases that have occurred in India, and because ‘tobacco taxes have not kept pace with the increased affordability of cigarettes’.

The study found also that the number of men aged 15-69 smoking any type of tobacco rose by about 29 million, or 36 percent, from 79 million in 1998 to 108 million in 2015, representing an average annual increase of about 1.7 million male smokers.

But this rise seems to be more than accounted for by the rise in population during this period since the overall age adjusted smoking prevalence of those aged 15-69 declined from 27 percent in 1998 to 24 percent in 2010. The smoking prevalence for 2015 was not stated.

In 2010, smoking caused about one million deaths, or 10 percent of all deaths in India, the story said.

About 70 percent of those deaths occurred in respect of people between the ages of 30 and 69 – ‘what should be the prime of their lives’, according to study author and director of the Centre for Global Health Research at St. Michael’s Hospital, Dr. Prabhat Jha.