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Which country smokes the most?
What would we do without The Economist and its great sidebars? This one shows just how much certain countries smoke. According to ERC, a market research company, the heaviest smokers come from Greece, with an average of 3,000 cigarettes per person in 2007. At 20 cigarettes per pack, that makes 150 packs in a year; a lot of puffing.
Despite recent smoking bans in many places, European countries still manage to hold 18 of the top 20 spots. The most surprising statistic? That France smokes less than the U.S. Whatever happened to the stereotypical image of the French, dressed in all black, a serious look on their face and a Gauloises glued to their fingers? It could have something to do with the price of cigarettes; a pack runs about 5 euros in France, equaling just a little under $8.
Click here to see how these results changed from 2006.
Despite recent smoking bans in many places, European countries still manage to hold 18 of the top 20 spots. The most surprising statistic? That France smokes less than the U.S. Whatever happened to the stereotypical image of the French, dressed in all black, a serious look on their face and a Gauloises glued to their fingers? It could have something to do with the price of cigarettes; a pack runs about 5 euros in France, equaling just a little under $8.
Click here to see how these results changed from 2006.
Which countries *cough* smoke the most?
Filed under: Learning, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Travel Health
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Shane May 12th 2008 8:20PM
Looks like Japan moved up a notch from number 7 to number six - funny I thought that they would have been higher on the list?
Cigarettes are cheap here at around $3.20 a pack but they are starting to take measures to educate people on the side effects of smoking. You can no longer smoke in a taxi in Tokyo and in some areas you will even be cited if you smoke while walking.
Shane Sakata
The Tokyo Traveler
http://www.thetokyotraveler.com
Anthony D. Conaway May 13th 2008 9:09AM
If Kentucky were an independent country, where would it rank? It's amazing how backward smoking laws are there compared to Ohio.
UT May 13th 2008 9:39AM
sadly we made it to number 10 in the states
nothing to be proud of.
whoever still smokes has to take a serious look at themself's.
Aunt Julie May 13th 2008 9:45AM
It's amazing that someone would refer to smoking laws as backward, or not... these laws should not have been considered, written, submitted or passed. I don't smoke. My dad did and later I did. I'm an "ex-smoker". I have NOTHING against smoking or cigarettes. I just don't because it upsets my family so much. Maybe later. I don't even miss it - after about 30 years, even! My lungs are fine. I used to amuse me and now irritates - even scares me - the Orwellian "tsk-tsk" of how we view smokers. Studies are slanted one way or tother... many smokers and those who are around smokers are totally healthy. It's NOT like narcotic ("harmless") street drugs which are heavily pushed by celebs, talk show hosts, tv shows, psychs and face it, about everyone you know, all very la-de-dah "let's legalize marijuana", ways to get legal marijuana illegitimately, doing "X" and coke and this and that all over the place, the whole heroin chic push - you name it. Having smoking sections in restaurants and airplanes and in airports was fine - if you didn't like it, you could go elsewhere. If they wanted to smoke, they could go elsewhere. Now, we all have to be dictated to because it ups the odds of poorer health. Well, so does living in a smoggy city, and that's a choice. So does eating foods with high fructose corn syrup, and that's a choice. Starving one's body of nutrients normally acquired via the organs known as eyeballs by allowing one's kids (or self) to stare at monitors hours on end (vid games, tv, computers). How about er um "I'm going to have a drink with dinner" - "social" drinking? Mmm even that impairs mental capacity. No one outlaws drinking, but outlawing drinking and driving is done as that's a legitimate danger, borne of irresponsibility and loss of life. I agree with that. "Second hand smoke" has already been filtered via someone's lungs - someone who opted to smoke. It can't possibly be as bad as smoking can be, if/when it is bad. Again, stay away from each other if you'd like. It's a personal choice if you wish to reside or co-habit with a smoker, and there are plenty of devices to absorb the smoke if you're an adult and wish to shelter your kids or pets somehow in your own - and I stess OWN - home. Well, same goes for restaurants and planes. That's why we have HEPA filters, smokeless ashtrays, heck even fans. Leave it alone already. Lighten up on the "smokeless cities" and all that. Legislators are supposed to write and pass representative laws. This is tantamount to someone coming to your house and saying, YOU can't smoke here. You can't have chocolate cake here - sugar. You can't have alcohol here. You can't have beef, it's not per your blood type. You can't eat meat, vegetarians don't agree. You can't do this sexual act with your wife here - we wouldn't. You can't watch these shows, they do not conform. You can't read this book, it goes against The State. You can't believe that here.
Sound familiar?
Mia May 13th 2008 10:55AM
Wow, Aunt Julia, you sure do sound like a bitter person. You definitely need to get your facts before you spew such damnation towards people who just choose to have the freedom of going out without risking their lives. And by 'going out' I mean to public places where people recklessly smoke and choke themselves to death. Even outdoor venues such as sporting events and such have second-hand smoke. Not necessarily smoke exhaled by the smoker, but smoke coming from the lit cigarettes. There's a difference. Smoke coming from a smoker's lungs, exhaled, has been filtered, not only from that person's lungs, but also through the filter on the cigarette. If that's what you want to call it. Smoke coming from the lit end of the cigarette has NO filtering whatsoever, and that's what second-hand smoke is all about. Open your eyes to the dangers that it causes to people that aren't in the best of health.
As for the glamorization of heroin and other 'street drugs' I don't know what YOU'RE watching, but I don't see any of that. Maybe it's the culture that you're exposing yourself to. I don't know, but again, it sure has made you a bitter person. You want to kill yourself with smoking? Go ahead, your family nagging you shouldn't stop you. Maybe they're nagging for a reason...
Mary May 13th 2008 11:04AM
Right on, Aunt Julie, I used to live in a town in central Calif where the anti-smoking gang got together and passed laws so you couldn't smoke anywhere except home or in your car. I guess they don't worry about all the crop dusting and pesticide use in the mostly agricultural area even though it has the highest incidence of childhood cancer due to the mothers being exposed during their pregnancies. But, hey, they don't have to worry about cigarette smoke!
Shirley May 17th 2008 1:07AM
I really liked your post. My husband stopped smoking about 8 yrs ago. It was very hard for him but he did it. heart problems and it was the right thing for him to do. I still smoke(74 yrs old) I always say that when I inhale and blow that smoke out yes you are right I got all the bad stuff. All anyone else gets is the smell. I smoke in only one room in my house and never complain where I can not smoke in others homes or places. I do wish they would leave me alone and let me enjoy the very finale last tender yrs of my life and enjoy my cigs. I do not drink. I love my coffee. Another note? How about coffee causing low birth weight? I has 5 children. One was 8 1/2 lbs, and all others were 7 1/2 lbs. Not small babies. I was a 110 lbs mom. The good lord probably knows how I will go when my time comes so they say so please let we smokers enjoy our coffee & cigs. My mom quit smoking and then got overian cancer. She said that was not a fair exchange. Bless all the quiters and please excuse the others.. Amen
sandy May 13th 2008 10:14AM
Greek men and women smoke till the ashes drop behind their teeth. That is the Greek mentality! Better they should keep there hands busy cleaning up the litter all over that beautiful country!!!!
sandy May 16th 2008 12:24PM
TO TASOS...WHERE? WITH THE EURO BEING SO HIGH, DON'T THEY HAVE BETTER PLACES FOR THEIR MONEY?
Sheila May 13th 2008 10:19AM
Aunt Julie
You sure wrote plenty about nothing. Sorry to burst your bubble, but second-hand smoke is a well established known that does inflict harm/injury to others - especially to the young, elderly, or those with compromised health. Do we need to improve the environment? Of course. This is why there are emission laws and such. Do we need to do more? Absolutely. The lack of one does not exonerate another. No man is an island unto himself.
Shirley May 14th 2008 4:20AM
The new Jersey air will get me long befoe my smoking will. That is a proven. Only the non smokers seem to think they have all the facts. My dad died at 82 yrs old. Still smoked and never had a problem with his heart, lungs etc. He died suddenly as many older people do because its just the way it is. He ate everything, enjoyed life and we mad him happy. Do you suppose thats why he lived as long as he did? Love from his family? I lost my son 5 yrs ago at the age of 43 yrs old. Never smoked a day in his life or drank coffee. Ate right and worked in a gym. I suppose you know about high blood pressure being the silent killer? It took my sons life. Maybe you and others could get on the band wagon about that?? There is no smoke coming out of these peoples mouths. They die suddenly and without warning. He's an angel.
Neuticles May 13th 2008 10:31AM
Amazing how radical people are about smokers but say nothing about the drunks. Alcohol kills and affects far more people in an adverse way that cigarettes.
Joseph Blazewicz May 13th 2008 10:32AM
People and monkeys are the only species that smoke.
The anti-smoking advocates aren't going to be happy until all tobacco and supplies are wiped off the face of the earth and then those same people will find fault with something else. Those type of people are never satisfied, put their garbage on the world,garbage in, garbage out, they are beyond miserable people.
Mia May 13th 2008 10:59AM
Perhaps because this is an article about smoking. Not that you don't have a point, because drunk-driving is definitely an important issue in this country, but it's for a different venue.
Jessica May 13th 2008 11:35AM
Aunt Julie may have sounded a little bitter and she may not have been as "to the point" as she could've been in her comment but she does hold a particular view that many Americans share. I too am an ex-smoker. My husband and I both recently quit. And both of us believe that the anti-smoking laws enacted in most US states are inherently WRONG and go against everything this country stands for.
The United States of America is a country that was founded on the freedom of CHOICE. The choice of which religion to follow, which candidate to vote for, which career path to take, etc. etc. etc. Smoking is a personal choice. Before the smoking ban was passed in my home state, there were non-smoking bars, non-smoking restaurants and non-smoking sporting events/concerts/festivals. When a person decided to go out, they made a CHOICE of whether to visit a smoking venue or a non-smoking venue. Now there is no CHOICE. Our state has told us what to do. I might feel differently about the laws, if we were given the chance to vote on them. But we weren't. We were told, like little children (or sheeple, if you will), what we could and could not do.
I understand that smoking is an unhealthy habit and that many people find it digusting. But there are also, many other unhealthy habits that this country engages in that I or the state for instance might find disgusting. You tell me if you will like living in a country where you are told is against the law to drink alcohol, to eat fatty foods, to go out in the sun for too long, to spend too much time on the computer, etc. That kind of totalitarianism is where the anti-smoking laws will lead us. Wait and see.
And as for the second hand smoke argument. Seriously. Is sucking on the tailpipe of a running vehicle as harmful as sitting in a traffic jam? Seriously.
barbara May 13th 2008 2:34PM
Jessica...if you lived in NYC you would find exactly what you are saying...laws against fatty foods, laws against where and when and how you go out, laws against smoking, laws against any and everything that Mike Bloomberg doesn't like...it's a way of life here. He is constantly trying to legislate "health" and makes fun of those who would prefer to have some freedom.
Lindy May 13th 2008 12:13PM
Well said Aunt Julie. This is not an issue of where people should smoke it's an issue of freedom of choice. I'm wondering how those people who are so anti smokers would feel if their rights were taken away. Lets get a ban on people using cell phones in restaurants, or a limit on how much coffee a person can drink each day, or how about only allowing us to read certain books. After all, that is also for our own good and those people around us.
Lindy May 13th 2008 12:20PM
Oh please!!! If you don't like Greece then don't go there. Keep the nasty comments to yourself.
On a side note, perhaps all those anti smokers should look at something far more important than second hand smoke. Why aren't they going after the source of the problem instead? The USA is one of the only countries that allows the tobacco companies to put so much addictive poison in cigarettes. Why not stop them from doing it? Less addictive means less smokers. Of course all those anti smokers find it far easier to pick on smokers and segregate them than to go after a big company.
Cher May 13th 2008 12:45PM
Neuticles comments that alcohol kills more people than cigarettes. Actually a Robert Woods Johnson Study that came out about 10 years ago compared the costs (including death) of drugs, of cigarettes and of alcohol. Cigarettes were far costlier all around to the average family. This study included deaths by cigarettes from smoke and other issues (cancers, other lung issues and other - fires when the smoker fell asleep...etc.) Financial costs per average family were also taken into consideration (i.e. even the wine collector was considered in the formula.)
Mark May 13th 2008 12:48PM
Snoking bans do not make sense. Quite simply, ETS is not present in anywhere near the quantities to be a major risk factor. The anti-tobacco lobby has exagerated the risk. Think of it this way - people's breathing competes with the building's ventilation system for the available smoke. People breathe at about 8 l/min or about 0.28 cfm. Building codes generally require 10 to 20 cfm of outdoor air. This means that about 35 to 70 times as much smoke will be removed by the ventilation system than by people breathing. In addition, a significant quantity of smoke is still in the air at the end of the day, when people leave the building.
If anyone is interested in calculating actual dose, I suggest you use National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST.gov) CONTAM computer program. While it takes some conversions, one can get something equivalent to dose.