MPOWERing away from one billion deaths
We recently, quite rightly, had a go at tobacco companies so I thought you might be interested to hear about the latest weapon to fight the tabacco demon: MPOWER: Monitoring tobacco use, Protecting people from secondhand smoke, Offering help to quit, Warning about tobacco’s effects, Enforcing bans on advertising and sponsorship, and Raising taxes on tobacco products. Faith McLelland, the Lancet’s north American editor explains more about MPOWER in a Lancet editorial which I have copied for you below- Rhona
WHO report
Six steps away from averting a billion deaths
Americans are fond of complaining that they are “born free and taxed to death”. A new report from WHO recommends a public policy that would increase one particular form of taxation even further-a move that would effectively tax citizens everywhere to life instead. Increasing taxes on tobacco products is a proven method of reducing their consumption and is one of the six core interventions in the WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2008.
The global burden of tobacco-related harms is enormous. The leading cause of preventable death throughout the world, tobacco use killed 100 million people in the 20th century. If this trend continues unchecked, the yearly death toll by 2030 will be more than 8 million. That is a total of 1 billion deaths in the 21st century. Even worse, tobacco use is common in the poorest populations, with 80% of tobacco-related deaths occurring in developing countries. The world’s smokers are now concentrated in only ten countries; China and India together account for more than 40% of the total. These facts have not gone unnoticed by the tobacco industry. Faced with increasing restrictions on smoking in the developed world, the manufacturers of cigarettes and other tobacco products have turned enthusiastically to countries where there is a huge-and growing-demand for their deadly wares.
The WHO report was financed through a foundation established by New York City mayor Michael R Bloomberg. It recommends that all countries implement a six-point programme called MPOWER. The acronym stands for monitoring tobacco use, Protecting people from secondhand smoke, offering help to quit, warning about tobacco’s effects, enforcing bans on advertising and sponsorship, and raising taxes on tobacco products. Bloomberg, who has successfully implemented such efforts in the USA’s largest city, points out that these interventions are cheap when compared with the cost of smoking to society.
The six-point plan is a clear roadmap, supported by country-specific data. Putting it into action may be the world’s best hope for averting what could otherwise become one of the greatest disasters in the history of public health. The Lancet
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