Public health advocates and industry analysts are attributing the high smoking rates to widespread interference in local policy-making by the worlds major tobacco companies.

The rates are dangerously high and a predictor of a future public health catastrophe, said Firas al-Hawari, a physician and head of the cancer-control office at Ammans King Hussein Cancer Center. Public health advocates and industry analysts are attributing these alarming figures to widespread interference in policy-making by the worlds major tobacco companies, which are said to be allowed to operate in Jordan with comparatively fewer restrictions than in the UK and other countries boasting low smoking rates.

These companies continue to exercise as much political power as they can in wealthy countries, but theyre more successful in lower-income countries where they face less transparency, can operate more in the dark and overwhelm whatever civic societies exist, said Rima Nakkash, an associate professor of public health at the American University of Beirut.

An article by the Guardian has listed the following points after conducting an investigation of the tobacco industry in Jordan:

Meanwhile, studies from around the world keep indicating the potential of e-cigarettes to slash smoking rates. A 2019 report by the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), had indicated that contrary to fears by the FDA that vaping could be acting as a gateway to smoking, smoking rates continue to drop amongst all age groups.

The survey data indicate that contrary to the current widespread fear that vaping could be addicting a whole new generation to smoking all over again, cigarette consumption among teenagers, young adults, and the general population, actually continues to decline. Additionally, in line with similar claims by other studies, the report on the 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), points out that actually e-cigarettes may be contributing to the downward trend in smoking.

Fewer than 1 in 6 people aged 12 or older in 2018 were past month cigarette smokers, notes the SAMHSA report. Cigarette use generally declined between 2002 and 2018 across all age groups. Some of this decline may reflect the use of electronic vaporizing devices (vaping), such as e-cigarettes, as a substitute for delivering nicotine.

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2019 Study: Jordan Has One of The World's Highest Smoking Rates - Vaping Post