ABSTRACT
While the health risks of tobacco smoking have been known for decades, the pandemic of tobacco use continues. There are now an estimated 1.3 billion smokers worldwide, along with hundreds of millions more who use oral tobacco products (WHO 2008). The attributable disease burden is enormous – about 6 million premature deaths worldwide each year – and is projected to grow substantially across the twenty-first century (WHO 2002). While the global tobacco epidemic continues to grow, great progress has been made in tobacco control in some countries, primarily in North America andWestern Europe, where smoking rates have dropped by about 50 per cent over the last four decades; mortality rates from several smoking-caused diseases, including lung cancer and coronary heart disease (CHD), are declining; and smokefree initiatives are protecting non-smokers from inhaling second-hand smoke (SHS). The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), a global public health treaty incorporating best practices in tobacco control, now provides a foundation for other regions to follow.
