The Power of Global Tobacco Reform

Monitor tobacco use and prevention polices.

The first part of MPOWER focuses on the importance of monitoring global data collected regarding:

• the prevalence of tobacco use,
• the impact of tobacco control policies,
• and tobacco industry marketing, promotion and lobbying

Through careful attention to and reporting of this data, governments can create effective tobacco control policies that will best serve the public.

Protect people from tobacco smoke.

Research has shown that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Breathing in ETS contributes to a wide variety of diseases, including heart disease and many cancers. It is important to increase public awareness about the dangers of ETS. Legislating smoke-free environments encourages smokers to quit and nonsmokers to protect themselves and loved ones by choosing to live in smoke-free homes.

• Secondhand Smoke Facts

Offer help to quit tobacco use.

It's estimated that three-quarters of smokers want to quit, yet only 5 to 7 percent of those who do quit smoking without support are still smoke-free a year later. WHO suggests boosting assistance to smokers trying to quit in a number of ways:

• Incorporate cessation counseling more fully into the primary care setting. Advice and assistance from a trusted health care professional could help more people quit smoking
• Increase the availability of nation-wide toll-free telephone quit lines.
• Encourage the use of quit aids. Public health services can help reduce the cost for consumers.
• Provide governmental support for programs to help people quit smoking. It is important to first motivate citizens to quit through the other measures of MPOWER, such as raising taxes and aggressive anti-smoking legislation, before investing in these programs, however.

Ultimately, the more options available and easily accessed by smokers interested in quitting, the more lives saved.

• Smoking Cessation Support Forum

• Quit Smoking 101 -- a free email course

Warn about the dangers of tobacco.

Many people around the world still think of tobacco use as a bad habit rather than a life-threatening activity. It's important that we change the face of tobacco so that people begin to associate it with disease, addiction and death. Casting tobacco in a negative light will help us make the shift in consciousness that is needed.

• How Smoking Harms Us: Head to Toe

Enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.

Tobacco manufacturers spend a lot of time and money on seductive ad campaigns to sell their deadly products.

From WHO:

"To sell a product that kills up to half of all its users requires some extraordinary marketing savvy."

Boy, isn't that the truth.

In the United States and other developed nations, tobacco companies have met with an increasing amount of resistance and stricter limits on how they are allowed to market their products. That translates to a reduction in cigarette consumption. It's no wonder that tobacco companies are currently setting their sights on marketing to countries where there are no restrictions on tobacco advertising. It is important that all countries take a proactive stance against tobacco by enacting strong measures of tobacco control.

Raise taxes on tobacco.

Perhaps the most effective way to cut tobacco use is to simply make tobacco products too expensive to buy. When faced with feeding the family or feeding a cigarette addiction, people are often quickly swayed to get serious about smoking cessation. Along with the personal incentive that raising taxes provides, cigarette taxes directly benefit governments through increased revenue that can then be used for tobacco-related programs. Tobacco taxes have the ability to ease the burden of health care for people sick with tobacco-related diseases and fund programs to help people quit smoking.

In summary...

When it comes to stemming the flow of death and destruction that tobacco use leaves in its wake, it takes a village to effect change -- a global village. If adopted by governments around the world, these simple, yet powerful MPOWER policies could be a life preserver that will save millions and millions of lives.

_Sources:

The Global Tobacco Crisis. 2008. The World Health Organization.

MPOWER: six policies to reverse the tobacco epidemic. 2008. The World Health Organization.

A Nationally Representative Case–Control Study of Smoking and Death in India. 13 February, 2008. New England Journal of Medicine.

WHO Executive Summary: The Health of Adults. 2008. The World Health Organization.

WHO/WPRO Smoking Statistics. 28 May, 2002. The World Health Organization.