Highest smoking rate in the Americas goes to Chile

Feb 17, 2012 by Pro Smoker

Chile has the highest incidence of adult tobacco smoking of any country in the Americas, according to an I Love Chile story quoting a study by the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO).

Chile’s adult smoking rate, at 35 per cent, was said to compare with 30 per cent in Bolivia, 29 per cent in the US, and 17 per cent in Brazil and Columbia.

Despite a number of anti-smoking initiatives, including a ban on smoking in health facilities and schools, a cessation service that provides nicotine replacement therapy products to smokers who wish to quit, a cigarette tax rate of 76 per cent and a ban on cigarette advertisements in the print media and on television and radio, Chile’s youth smoking rate last year was the same as in 2010.

According to the results of the (PAHO) study, 35.1 per cent of Chile’s young people start smoking before they are 15 years of age.