EU cigarette production down in 2016

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - Cigarette production in the European Union dropped by 36 billion items to 527 billion in 2016, Eurostat said on Thursday.

Production is therefore down a third, or almost 300 billion cigarettes, from 2006, the report stressed.

The report said: "In 2016, the EU’s production was equivalent to more than 1,000 cigarettes, or roughly 50 packets of 20 cigarettes, per inhabitant."

Germany's cigarette production amounted for 32 percent of that of the EU with nearly 168 billion.

"In other words, one in every three cigarettes produced in the EU originated in Germany," said the report.

Poland (19 percent) and Romania (15 percent) followed Germany with 99 billion and 77 billion cigarettes.

Eurostat highlighted that the cigarette production's value in 2016 was around €6.2 billion ($6.88 billion).

"Tobacco consumption is one of the greatest avoidable health risks in the EU," another Eurostat report said on Thursday.

The report showed that of 5.2 million deaths recorded in 2015 in EU countries, a quarter -- 1.3 million -- were due to cancer.

Lung cancer was the leading type observed in those deaths, with 273,400, according to the report.

The World Health Organization (WHO) called for global action against the tobacco industry Thursday as it marked "World No Tobacco Day".

The WHO's report underlined tobacco kills 7 million people each year, despite a steady reduction in tobacco use globally.