WHO Warns of 1 Billion Tobacco-Related Deaths
The World Health Organization (WHO), the U.N.’s health agency, released a new report Thursday that showed not a single country has fully implemented all of the key tobacco control measures to reduce smoking rates. Â
The report is the first comprehensive analysis of global tobacco use and control efforts, and found that only 5% of the world’s population live in countries that fully protect their population with any one of the key measures that reduce smoking rates. Â
The report said the "tobacco epidemic" is growing and could claim 1 billion lives by the end of the century unless governments dramatically step up efforts to curb smoking.
The report also revealed that governments around the world collect more than $200 billion in tobacco taxes every year, but spend less than 1 percent of that revenue on tobacco control. This means the governments collect on average 500 times more money per year than they spend on anti-tobacco efforts.  The WHO said these taxes could be significantly increased in nearly all countries to provide a source of funding for additional anti-smoking measures.
Tobacco tax revenues are more than 4000 times greater than spending on tobacco control in middle-income countries and more than 9000 times greater in lower-income countries. High- income countries collect about 340 times more money in tobacco taxes than they spend on tobacco control.
The organization outlined an approach, called MPOWER, consisting of six policies that governments can implement to prevent tens of millions of premature deaths by the middle of this century. These strategies include:
- Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies
- Protect people from tobacco smoke
- Offer help to quit tobacco use
- Warn about the dangers of tobacco
- Enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship
- Raise taxes on tobacco
“While efforts to combat tobacco are gaining momentum, virtually every country needs to do more. These six strategies are within the reach of every country, rich or poor and, when combined as a package, they offer us the best chance of reversing this growing epidemic,” said Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO. Dr Chan launched the WHO Report of the Global Tobacco Epidemic at a news conference with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg Philanthropies helped fund the report.
“The report released today is revolutionary,” Mayor Bloomberg said. “For the first time, we have both a rigorous approach to stop the tobacco epidemic and solid data to hold us all accountable. No country fully implements all of the MPOWER policies and 80% of countries don’t fully implement even one policy. While tobacco control measures are sometimes controversial, they save lives and governments need to step up and do the right thing.”
The report also documents the shift of tobacco use to the developing world, where 80% of the more than eight million annual tobacco-related deaths projected by 2030 are expected to occur.
According to the report, this shift results from a global tobacco industry strategy to target young people and adults in the developing world, ensuring that millions of people become fatally addicted every year. The targeting of young women in particular is highlighted as one of the “most ominous potential developments of the epidemic’s growth".
The global analysis, compiled by WHO with information provided by 179 Member States, gives governments and other groups a baseline from which to monitor efforts to stop the epidemic in the years ahead. The MPOWER package provides countries with a roadmap to help them meet their commitments to the widely embraced global tobacco treaty known as the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which came into force in 2005.
WHO is also working with global partners to scale up the help that can be offered to countries to implement the strategies.
Dr Douglas Bettcher, Director of WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative, said the six MPOWER strategies would create a powerful response to the tobacco epidemic. “This package will create an enabling environment to help current tobacco users quit, protect people from second-hand smoke and prevent young people from taking up the habit,” he said.
Other key findings in the report include:
- Only 5% of the global population is protected by comprehensive national smoke-free legislation and 40% of countries still allow smoking in hospitals and schools;
- Only 5% of the world’s population lives in countries with comprehensive national bans on tobacco advertising and promotion;
- Just 15 countries, representing 6% of the global population, mandate pictorial warnings on tobacco packaging;
- Services to treat tobacco dependence are fully available in only nine countries, covering 5% of the world’s people;
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On the Net:
The full World Health Organization Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2008 can be viewed at http://www.who.int/tobacco/mpower/mpower_report_full_2008.pdf.