Progress in reducing tobacco use is a key indicator for measuring countries’ efforts to implement the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control – target 3.a under the Sustainable Development Goals agenda. Countries have adopted this indicator to report progress also towards the tobacco reduction target under the Global Action Plan …
Three years ago, an international treaty took effect that was designed to help developing countries resist aggressive marketing by big tobacco companies. The idea was that if a large number of countries committed themselves to the same tobacco control policies - including bans on all advertising and promotion - they …
Preventable loss of life A NEW study has found that Indians are more susceptible to the harmful effects of tobacco and that the addiction is set to claim an overwhelming 10 lakh lives a year from 2010. No less a figure than Professor Amartya Sen has called for "immediate public …
The health and economic implications of tobacco merit review A survey on smoking habits in India has revealed that the country is in the grip of a smoking epidemic. According to the study, by the year 2010, smoking could kill over a million people annually and account for nearly one …
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
It is well known that when the dangers of smoking became increasingly obvious in the 1950s, tobacco companies funded scientific research aimed at downplaying the risks. Now, a little-known strand of that campaign, aimed at giving an intellectual gloss to pro-smoking arguments, has been detailed for the first time.
KOLKATA, Feb. 13: School-going children in West Bengal are more prone to get addicted to tobacco products. Thanks to the lack of awareness among people in these parts about the dangers of tobacco use. This was revealed by a voluntary organisation, West Bengal Voluntary Health Association (WBVHA) this afternoon who …
Likely to cause nearly a million deaths a year by 2010; more than half of these among poor and illiterate people India is in the grip of a smoking epidemic likely to cause nearly a million deaths a year by 2010, according to a study released on Thursday. One in …
Denis Fernander, Ribandar It cost A. Sharfudeen, a Tamilian, his voice box to realize that smoking is dangerous to health. Mr. Sharfudeen lost his voice box to smoking after a larynxectomy necessitated for removal of cancerous cell on his larynx. Now, he tours entire country to campaign against perils using …
Even more than tempting liquors like tequila, tobacco is a pleasure that the Old World wishes it had never taken from the New. In 1492, when Christopher Columbus was met by tribesmen with "fruit, wooden spears and certain dried leaves which gave off a distinct fragrance', he threw the last …
The World Health Organisation (WHO) last week released a report that makes clear both the devastating scope of the global tobacco epidemic and that it is entirely avoidable if nations implement proven solutions. This report presents what nations are doing to address this public health crisis and it demonstrates that …
An increasing number of teenagers in India is taking to tobacco and nearly one million people die every year due to tobacco-related illnesses, says a new study by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The report titled
A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. The anti-tobacco lobby is learning to use that dictum to its advantage. Gory and graphic pictures of cancer stricken patients occupy 30 per cent of the surface of a cigarette packet in countries like Thailand, Hong Kong, Canada and Australia. As …
It's just not the consumption of tobacco, which is dangerous. Its marketing techniques, including advertisements, also have negative consequences. A recent survey of school children in Chennai and Delhi showed exposure to tobacco ads made children five times more susceptible to consuming it, and those receptive to marketing techniques were …
>> More than 100,000 tonnes of rotting garbage are lying on the roadsides of the southern Italian city of Naples, after garbage trucks stopped operating since the last week of December 2007 because all landfills are full. Authorities fear the stinking heaps could spread disease. >> Bolivia, Chile and Brazil …
The WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2008 documents the extent of the epidemic, details how MPOWER will reverse it and assesses the current status of global tobacco control. The report provides rigorous information on the status of effective tobacco control measures in almost every country. The report’s appendices …
World Health Statistics 2008 presents the most recent available health statistics for WHO's 193 Member States. This fourth edition includes 10 highlights of health statistics as well as data on an expanded set of over 70 key health indicators. The indicators were selected on the basis of their relevance to …
Nigeria sues Tobacco company: The Nigerian government has filed a lawsuit in the High Court of Abuja against tobacco companies British-American Tobacco, Philip Morris International and International Tobacco Ltd. It has sought US $42.4 billion in reparations for damages the companies have caused to Nigerians' health. The government has demanded …
the Chhattisgarh government is planning to ban gutka (chewing tobacco) from January next year. Though talks of banning the flavoured chewing tobacco have been going on for the past two years, state health officials say the issue assumed urgency after a high concentration of magnesium carbonate, a toxic substance, was …
"There is no good reason why a switch from tobacco products to less harmful nicotine delivery systems should not be encouraged.' So stated a 1991 Lancet Editorial, yet 16 years later cigarettes continue to dominate the nicotine-delivery system market, despite their clear health risks. (Editorial) Oct 6-12, 2007
