2015-05-28 16:09:00

World No Tobacco Day 2015 urges combatting illegal tobacco trade


The tobacco epidemic is one of the world’s biggest-ever public health threats, killing nearly six million people annually, the United Nations health agency has warned, calling for combatting illegal tobacco trade.   In a factsheet on tobacco, released on Wednesday, the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) said that one in every 10 cigarettes consumed is illicit, making them cheaper and more accessible to people from low-income groups, as well as to children.  The report released in view of the May 31 World No Tobacco Day, said nearly 80 per cent of the world's one billion smokers live in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of tobacco-related illness and death is heaviest. 

The WHO further warned that tobacco, which caused 100 million deaths in the 20th century, may cause one billion deaths in the 21st century if current trends continue. Each year, World NO Tobacco Day is marked on 31 May by WHO and its partners to highlight the health risks associated with tobacco use and advocate for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption.

The report pointed out that illicit tobacco products increase consumption making them easily affordable and accessible to the poor and also children.  Because the illicit trade of tobacco products poses major health, economic and security concerns worldwide, the WHO has said combatting the illegal tobacco trade is the theme of this year’s annual observance.  Tax and price policies are widely recognized as among the most effective means of reducing demand for, and consumption of, tobacco products, but the illicit trade undermines such efforts. 

A key objective of this year’s campaign to advocate for the ratification and implementation by governments of the Protocol to Eliminate the Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, which is a supplementary treaty to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.  The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control entered into force in February 2005. Since then, it has become one of the most widely embraced treaties in the history of the United Nations with 180 Parties covering 90 per cent of the world's population.  (Source: UN)








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