All countries in the world need to scale up the cost-effective, proven and WHO — recommended strategies to reduce the number of deaths attributed to tobacco use. The World Health Statistics Report (2008) of WHO released 10 days before this year’s World No Tobacco Day (May 31) ups the urgency to scale up quality interventions to control tobacco use.
About half of all countries in the world implement none of the recommended tobacco control policies. Moreover, not more than five percent of the world’s population is fully covered by any one of these measures.
World Health Statistics Report (2008) had further confirmed that heart disease, obesity, and tobacco use were among the leading causes of deaths worldwide. The number of deaths from noncommunicable chronic conditions, the risk to which is exacerbated by tobacco use, is alarmingly rising far more than the number of deaths from communicable diseases like HIV, TB or malaria.
The single most preventable cause of death worldwide, the report stated, is tobacco use. Tobacco use has been found to kill one-third to one-half of its users, according to this report.
Earlier in February 2008, WHO had released the World Tobacco Epidemic Report which recommends a comprehensive package of six-effective tobacco control policies — clubbed as “MPOWER” that have demonstrated results in helping countries stop the diseases, deaths and economic damages caused by tobacco use.
The MPOWER package includes:
M: stands for “monitor” tobacco use and prevention policies.
P: stands for “protect” people from tobacco smoke.
O: stands for “offer” help to quit tobacco use.
W: stands for “warn” about the dangers of tobacco use.
E: stands for “enforce” bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
R: stands for “raised” taxes on tobacco. Raising taxes and therefore prices, is the most effective way to reduce tobacco use, and especially to discourage young people from using tobacco.
However the global tobacco epidemic stands starkly apart from other conventional disease control programs because of an aggressive tobacco industry that is hell-bent on protecting and expanding its markets globally, particularly in the developing countries of Asia and Africa.
“Big Tobacco’s interference in health policy is one of the greatest threats to the treaty’s implementation and enforcement. Philip Morris/Altria, British American Tobacco (BAT) and Japan Tobacco (JT) use their political influence to weaken, delay and defeat tobacco control legislation around the world.
While the industry claims to have changed its ways, it continues to use sophisticated methods to undermine meaningful legislation,” aacording top Kathy Mulvey of Corporate Accountability International.
The alert monitoring of tobacco corporations and holding them accountable for violating existing health policies will further boost the impact of the WHO’s MPOWER package in reducing tobacco use globally.
— Bobby Ramakant is a regional correspondent and a member of Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT).
