By Gang Phan: Subscribe to Gang's RSS feed
May 31, 2011 3:08 PM EDT
The World Health Organization (WHO) said the the tobacco epidemic will kill about 6 million people, including around 600,000 nonsmokers from exposing to tobacco smoke in 2011, and it will kill 8 million people by 2030.
Tobacco use accounts for 63 percent of all deaths, nearly 80 percent of which occur in low- and middle-income countries. Up to 50 percent of all tobacco users will eventually die of a tobacco-related disease. Tobacco use has been one of the biggest contributors to the epidemic of noncommunicable diseases, such as heart attack, stroke, cancer and emphysema.
The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) has made some progress in the fight against the epidemic of tobacco use. 172 countries and the European Union have become Parties to the WHO FCTC since it was adopted by the World Health Assembly in 2003.
However, the WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said more needs to be done for the treaty to achieve its full potential.
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"It is not enough to become a Party to the treaty. Countries must also pass, or strengthen, the necessary implementing legislation and then rigorously enforce it," Chan added.
The WHO said much more needs to be done, as the Parties own reports indicate. 40 of the 65 Parties that submitted mandatory reports twice, reported progress in raising tobacco taxes, 39 in making public places smoke-free and 35 in strengthening research and surveillance of tobacco control.Up to half of the 65 Parties reported progress in strengthening health warnings on packages of tobacco, in banning tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, in helping smokers to quit and in protecting public health policies from tobacco industry interference, among other measures.
The WHO FCTC has come into force since 2005. The last country to become one of the Parties was Turkmenistan on 13 May 2011.
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