Cigarette use in a number of developing countries may fall to zero in the next three decades as smokers quit or switch to alternative products, according to a new report. Smoking will disappear by 2050 from the United States, parts of Europe, Australia and large chunks of Latin America if
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Reaching for that pack of smokes? You arenât the only one.
Tobacco sales in the U.S. have typically declined in recent decades. In 2020, they remained flat.Credit.Jeff Chiu/Associated Press
Feb. 6, 2021
Lots of people seem to be smoking again or more during the pandemic, if anecdotal evidence and preliminary sales figures for tobacco products are any measure.
âGood quality surveys operate at a lag,â said Vaughan W. Rees, the director of the Center for Global Tobacco Control at Harvard University, referring to reliable smoking studies from institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. âBut we are seeing interesting blips. The decline in tobacco sales has slowed in the past 10 months.â
Some blame the pandemic for the stress and boredom that have led them to buy more cigarettes.
Credit.Chloe Pang for The New York Times
Feb. 6, 2021
Maria Neuman blames Netflix. “Last night, I blistered through seven cigarettes because I was watching a movie,” said Ms. Neuman, 51, a freelance writer who lives in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. “It’s bad enough that I started smoking again during a pandemic. Now, I’m smoking inside.”
Milo Martin, a poet in Los Angeles, offered fewer excuses. “Being quarantined is a great opportunity to sit around and smoke,” Mr. Martin, 57, said. “It’s an existential exercise to tangibly see yourself breathing.”