Note: World Lung Foundation united with The Union North America. From January 2016, the combined organization is known as “Vital Strategies.”
Informal Interactive Civil Society Hearing on NCDs
United Nations Headquarters
New York, United States
June 19, 2014
Tobacco use is the one risk factor related to all four of the major non-‐communicable diseases (NCDs): cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes. NCDs kill 35 million people every year, of which 80 percent are in low and middle income countries. Tobacco directly kills five million people every year, making it the most preventable cause of death worldwide.
It is this massive toll on human life and this link to major NCDs that makes tobacco use urgent and uniquely important as an area to be addressed when Member States deliver an Outcome Document in July 2014.
We are pleased that tobacco use has been included in the first draft sent to Member States, but we cannot emphasize enough how critical it is to maintain the integrity of language supporting reduction of tobacco use. We urge Member States to include targets for reduction of tobacco use, both globally and at country level. An achievable target would be a reduction in global tobacco use of 30 percent by 2025. Based on the global target, Member States should set national goals and allocate sufficient technical and financial resources to meet those goals by 2025.
The simplest way to achieve such targets is to accelerate implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and to urge those that are not parties to ratify and implement the FCTC immediately. Significant evidence exists to show that tobacco consumption can be reduced through policies in the FCTC at minimal cost to governments. These policies include increasing the price of tobacco through taxation, effectively warning tobacco users through graphic pack warnings and public education campaigns, and making public spaces 100% smoke-‐free.
A critical component to success will be to exclude the tobacco industry from the process of both international and national health policy making. A fundamental conflict of interest exists between public health and the tobacco business, which seeks to profit from consumption of this addictive, deadly product.
Sustainable development requires a sustained healthy population, and NCDs are poised to derail any gains made in other development areas. Tobacco Control leads WHO’s list of “Best Buy” health intervention because it offers the opportunity to make maximum impact with little risk or cost. To do less will cost millions of lives and generations of lost economic opportunity.