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Press Room

With Strong Tobacco Control, Reducing Cancer is not Beyond Us

Note: World Lung Foundation united with The Union North America. From January 2016, the combined organization is known as “Vital Strategies.”

(Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and New York, USA) – World Lung Foundation today issued the following statement to mark World Cancer Day. Peter Baldini, Chief Executive Officer, World Lung Foundation, said:

“On World Cancer Day, we applaud the good work of cancer organizations around the globe. Those who fund and conduct research and treatment, those who help and advise families affected by cancer, those who spread knowledge of best practice and those who work to raise awareness of cancer prevention. We join with them in saying that beating cancer is “Not Beyond Us”, even as an ever-increasing number of people are impacted by cancers of all types, all around the globe.

“We know that defeating cancer is not beyond us, because we can reduce the risk factors that lead to cancer. Tobacco use is the leading risk factor – and not just for the oral, throat and lung cancers traditionally associated with tobacco. Worryingly, the recently-published Global Burden of Disease Report revealed that the incidence of cancer is increasing most rapidly in low and middle income countries, many of which don’t yet have mature tobacco control legislation and enforcement mechanisms in place. Similarly, tobacco-related disease places a growing financial and resource burden on national healthcare systems, most keenly felt in countries with immature health systems and limited resources – leaving fewer resources for non tobacco-related cancers.

“Tackling tobacco is within our grasp. That’s because there are evidence-based best practices that can reduce tobacco use substantially. One hundred and eighty countries are already signatories to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control – they just need to pass the necessary legislation to bring those measures into force and then enforce those laws to bring about reductions in tobacco use. We can encourage low and middle-income countries to do this by putting tobacco control and the FCTC at the heart of the new round of Sustainable Development Goals. We can help to turn the tide on the rising wave of cancer cases. We can prevent the growing epidemic of tobacco-related cancers. But we must act, now, so that stopping cancer is not beyond us.”