Jordan Daily – Smoking causes deaths, diseases and economic losses, but it still seems to be an unimportant issue for concerned authorities that should work to combat it or reduce the number of smokers, according to Al-Ghad News.
Tobacco causes 24.7 Jordanian deaths daily, with an annual average death toll of 9,027, of whom 56 percent are under 70.
Although it provides the state Treasury with hundreds of millions of dinars as a result of the taxes and fees that the government earns from the sale of tobacco, it causes economic losses of JD1.6 billion annually, equivalent to 6 percent of the GDP, of JD399 million due to premature deaths and of JD204 million spent on health care for smokers.
The average monthly spending on cigarettes and hookah is JD76, a daily average of JD2.53, while annual household spending amounts to JD717.1 million, a daily average of JD1,965. The average number of cigarettes smokers use per day is 21 (23 for males, 13 for females), according to the news organization.
Jordan is the first in the world in terms of smokers, and this is blamed on the lack of commitment to implement Public Health Law No. 47 of 2008, the manufacturing of cigarettes in Jordan and to promoting smoking among adolescents and children.
Smokers in Jordan stand at 50.3 percent, of whom 9.2 percent smoke electronic cigarettes and vape devices, and 41.1 percent smoke traditional tobacco; the average age of smoking males is 17 years, and of females is 24.
