The Community is still hooked on tobacco, with rates higher than those of a decade ago

The Region of Murcia continues to support high rates of smoking despite all the laws and measures put in place in recent decades. 36.6% of the Murcian population between the ages of 15 and 64 smokes daily, according to the latest Survey on Alcohol and other Drugs (Ages) in Spain, published yesterday by the Ministry of Health. Only people from Extremadura, Valencia and Castilian Manchego are more addicted to tobacco, with 43.3%, 42.3% and 36.8% of daily smokers, respectively. The national average stands at 33.1%.

Although daily consumption falls one point in the Region of Murcia compared to the previous survey, from 2019, the rate is higher than that registered a decade ago, when 34.4% of the Murcian population declared themselves to be smokers. By gender, men continue to smoke more. 41.1% of men between the ages of 15 and 64 smoke daily, compared to 31.9% of women.

Throughout Spain, almost 70% of the population between 15 and 64 years of age have used tobacco at some time in their lives (in the Region of Murcia, 74%), although among those who smoke daily, 64% have considered quitting, and 42% have tried. Regarding electronic cigarettes, their consumption has doubled since 2015 in Spain: if in that year only 6.8% had ever tried them, now the percentage rises to 12.1%.

Almost 1,500 interviews

Edades is an ambitious study prepared from a survey of 26,000 citizens throughout the country. In the Region of Murcia, 1,498 interviews have been carried out, because the Ministry of Health has added another 550 participants to the sample initially provided by the Ministry (948 people). This allows us to have more robust data and expand regional results, highlights the general director of Public Health, José Jesús Guillén Pérez.

The problem of smoking in the Region, warns Guillén, is chronic, and before this it is necessary to break with the “normalization” of its consumption, remembering the enormous risks of nicotine.