"The report provides evidence of the impact of global efforts to address the pandemic of tobacco-related diseases," said Dr Nils E Billo, Executive Director of The Union. "Since 2008, tobacco control measures have been put in place that protect 1.1 billion more people, and this will ultimately have a major impact on public health."
According to WHO, 55% of the world's population is now covered by at least one of the WHO's MPOWER suite of six effective anti-tobacco policies: 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 advertising, promotion and sponsorship and Raise taxes on tobacco.
Since 2006, as part of the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, The Union has been working with governments, tobacco control organisations and other groups in over 33 countries to help them fulfill their obligations under WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). It has disseminated over 130 grants in low- and middle- income countries where the burden of tobacco use is highest, which enabled many countries to introduce strong graphic health warnings on tobacco products, such as Egypt, Madagascar and Pakistan. Grantees in Mexico and Egypt have also worked successfully to raise taxes on tobacco products. Many other grantees from Argentina to China have instituted smokefree policies on a national or sub-national level, thanks in large measure to the Bloomberg Initiative's continued commitment to tobacco control.
WHO found that the greatest gains were made in warning people about the dangers of tobacco use. More than one billion people in 19 countries are covered by laws requiring large, graphic health warnings on packages of tobacco, up from 547 million people in 16 countries in 2008.
Other key findings from The WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic include:
• 739 million people protected by national smoke-free legislation, up from 353 million in 2008, with much of the gain happening in low- and middle-income countries.
• 210 million people protected by smoke-free legislation at the sub-national level, a gain of 100 million since 2008.
• An additional 115 million people living in countries with the recommended minimum tobacco tax levels, and 26 countries and one territory with taxes constituting the recommended minimum of 75 percent of retail price.
• 59 countries representing 3.2 billion people monitoring the tobacco epidemic using best practice methods up from 36 countries in 2008.
"Recent progress in tobacco control is heartening, but should not deter from the fact that there is much work to be done in various areas and vigilance needs to continue in order not to allow successes gained to be toppled by an increasingly aggressive tobacco industry," said Ehsan Latif, the Director of the Tobacco Control Programme at The Union.
Latif noted that while the report shows that significant gains are clearly being made, the financial commitment to tobacco control measures is still relatively low in comparison with the amount of monies governments have collected from tobacco excise tax: US $133 billion compared to only US $1 billion spent on tobacco control, especially in low- and middle- income countries.
The Union's Tobacco Control programme has been working on these issues for over 25 years.
The WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic is available for download here.