Jordan lives in terrifying smoking rates, and ranks first as the most smoked country for individuals aged 15 years and over in the Middle East.
According to a report issued by the Supreme Population Council in Jordan in 2024, the World Health Organization estimated the number of tobacco users and its smokers in Jordan in 2022, at 2.77 million people; Of them 2.29 million male and 483 thousand female.
The report said, “There are some governorates in Jordan that exceed the spending of families on tobacco products and cigarettes to spend on meat and poultry.”
The National Strategy for Tobacco Control and Smoking in all its forms in Jordan for the years (2024-2030) acknowledges that the current trends of tobacco abuse in Jordan and the world are not compatible with sustainable development.
The strategy indicated that the low social and economic situation is greatly related to the high prevalence of cigarette smoking in Jordan, and the comprehensive studies of several sectors of the tobacco smokers extracted from investigative studies of the income of living families show that the minimum income of the Jordanian population is almost the most vulnerable to smoking cigarettes compared to the highest -income five, and that the poorest smokers spend on Cigarettes are 25 times more than they spend on health, 10 times on cigarettes more than they spend on education, and 1.5 times on cigarettes more than they spend on food.
The total annual economic losses of Jordan from tobacco use is 1.6 billion Jordanian dinars.
Jordan ranked first as the most used country of smoking among individuals aged 15 years and over in the Middle East region by 36% for 2022, with the expectation of increasing the percentage in Jordan in 2025 to about 37.1% and to 38.3% in 2030.
Tobacco spread is higher in men compared to women
The results of the STEPS to monitor the risk factors associated with noncommunicable diseases 2019 indicated that the percentage of smokers among the population of the total survey sample between the ages of (18-69 years) reached 41%, and the electronic cigarette smokers and VAPE devices formed 9.2%.
“The spread of tobacco was higher among men compared to women, as it reached 65.3% of the traditional tobacco smokers (manufactured cigarettes, hand -wrapped cigarettes, hookahs, piles, cigars, and non -smoked tobacco), 15% of modern products (electronic cigarettes and fibs), compared to 16.4% of women who smoked traditional Tabooma, and 2.4% users of modern products.”
It is possible that the increase in tobacco taxes imposed to increase the prices of tobacco products will be the strongest strategy for rapidly limiting tobacco use, especially among the poor and youth. The average monthly spending on manufactured cigarettes is 60.3 Jordanian dinars. It is more than 23% of the minimum mandatory monthly wage legally in Jordan.
The report of the Supreme Population Council in Jordan said that taking into account the average annual spending of Jordanian families on the commodity and services groups according to the governorates, there are some governorates in Jordan that exceed the spending of families on tobacco products and cigarettes to spend on meat and poultry, as in Balqa, Blue and Mafraq, and this indicates the extent of relying on the purchase of tobacco products in those areas compared to meat and poultry as part of the spending pattern In those families.
Princess Dina Marad, the honorary president of the European Cancer Research and Treatment of Cancer, the former executive director of the Al -Hussein Cancer Foundation, and the former president of the International Federation of Cancer Control, said in a previous special dialogue for “Al -Jazeera Health”, that the percentage of smoking among males from the age of eighteen or more, is approximately 67%, and 17% among female Between 13 and 15 years, it reached 33%.
In response to a question about the applicant so far, in the war between tobacco control and smoking companies in Jordan, Princess Dina and without thinking “smoking companies” answered.
She added that these companies are “profitable companies that have one goal, to acquire our youth, and prefer that the young man begin smoking at an early age, that is, between the tenth and twenty -sixth, because these companies discovered that if the person did not start smoking cigarettes early, he will not reach the stage of addiction, that is, when the person is twenty -six years of age without smoking, it will not reach the stage of addiction.”
The budgets of states excel
“Therefore, they intensify their efforts and all their huge budgets, and I have to say that they are budgets that exceed the budgets of countries, and they use the latest scientific and marketing foundations to carry the youth cigarette, and they have strategies that were discovered with secret documents one time …
These strategies have names, including the so -called preliminary stage, and its style that they start from schools, and they are trying to enter the lives of young people and surround them from all aspects, then the experimental stage, the consumer stage, and then the stage of complete addiction, they call the youth from the first stage, which is the experience of smoking for the first time, to the stage of smoking a full box of cigarettes per day, and then to the stage of addiction.
Princess Dina continues her speech and says, “We are one of the first countries to signed the World Health Organization Agreement Agreement in 2001, and we have a wonderful health law, and it has been modified several times to combat tobacco, but unfortunately there is no application yet ..
Unfortunately, Jordan tops the lists of states to the highest smoking rates in the world, and this is very unfortunate; Because in fact you do not want to turn your people into a sick people, especially young people, when they grow up in this case, you will not only have a sick people, but a humiliating people for cigarettes and tobacco products, a people burning their pockets and losing their health to finance these huge companies .. Unfortunately we are now in a very difficult situation. “
Dr. Larissa Al -War, Secretary of the Association “No Smoking in Jordan” and one of its founders, said in previous exclusive statements “Al -Jazeera Health” on the reality of the use of tobacco in the Kingdom between the category of teenagers and those under the age of eighteen, that “the situation we have is very bad at the present time, and the most important point we must remember, is that the Jordanian society is a young society, so when we have a high percentage of smoking among the young people, this means that there is a big problem …
We are not a society advanced in age, as 50% of Jordan’s population is under the age of 19 years, and this means that we are a young community. When we have 34% of males and 14% of females, or 24% of the age group between 13 and 15 years old; From cigarette or laxel smokers, this is a statistic from 2013, this means that we have a big problem. “
She added that “in the study published by the World Health Organization recently, Jordan was among the first six countries in the world in terms of high smoking rates, between more than 190 countries, which means that we are unfortunately one of the countries that are witnessing the increase in the spread of smoking.”
Normalization with smoking
“When smoking is used to us, this means that we have a normalization with smoking … the child has a smoking everywhere,” said Dr. Larissa.
“The global studies that discussed the youth show that 90% of the electronic cigarette smokers started smoking them through flavors, and that if these flavors were not available, this percentage would not be smoked. And about their favorite flavors, of course these studies are unfortunately we have, and most of them showed that the flavor of fruit is the favorite flavor, followed by the flavor of the candy, and then the flavor of mint, and the nickname, and the nickname, and the nickname, and then the flavor These flavors are present in electronic cigarettes and in the honey.
These are factors that help the spread of these substances in young adults and youth, and at the same time increases their addiction. Also, a third of smokers of electronic cigarettes at the beginning stage later turned into smoking traditional cigarettes, and we must also be aware, and this is according to international studies, which are at a certain stage, “adding that” there are 16 thousand flavors for electronic cigarettes. “