New Tobacco Atlas Shows Promise of Progress for a Global Problem

Friday April 06, 2012

I learned a fact recently that has really stuck with me. During the year 2010, the tobacco industry made an estimated $6,000 in profit for every person killed by tobacco use around the world. Six thousand per death.

With almost 6 million people dying annually from smoking-related diseases, you can see how the tobacco industry has been able to earn incredible profits from addicting people to their products using manipulating, misleading practices. In fact, in 2010, the six leading tobacco companies in the world made a collective profit of $35.1 billion, the equivalent of the profits of Coca Cola, McDonalds and Microsoft combined.

These facts and more from the latest Tobacco Atlas, a graphic representation by the American Cancer Society and the World Lung Foundation of the global tobacco epidemic, the progress being made and the latest products and misleading practices deployed by Big Tobacco,  were released at the World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Singapore last month.

The progress now being made around the world to combat the tobacco epidemic is largely linked to public policy and legislation related to tobacco control. According to the Tobacco Atlas, the number of people globally who were protected by comprehensive smoke-free laws doubled between 2008 and 2010. With many studies showing smoking bans do not affect employment or business, smoke-free laws are an effective, proven way to help people quit smoking.

As we’ve learned in the U.S., the most effective way to tackle tobacco use is through a multi-pronged approach of enacting comprehensive smoke-free laws, regularly and significantly increasing tobacco taxes and providing sustained investments in cessation and prevention programs. Significantly curbing the marketing practices of the industry to entice new and young smokers is another key strategy. Since 2002, the Society and ACS CAN have helped 35 states, four U.S. territories and the District of Columbia enact laws requiring that 100 percent of workplaces and/or restaurants and/or bars be smoke-free, protecting nearly 80 percent of the U.S. population from secondhand smoke. We’ve also led the way in working with state legislatures to pass more than 100 cigarette tax increases in 47 states.

In the U.S., we are also fortunate to have a law, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, that will rein in Big Tobacco through regulation by the FDA of the industry’s production and marketing practices. ACS CAN is working to strongly implement this law to help people quit smoking and ensure our kids never start.

With attention to this kind of policy globally, the next edition of the Tobacco Atlas should show more progress against tobacco use and less profit for Big Tobacco.

Dr. John Seffrin, CEO of ACS CAN, presenting the Tobacco Atlas at the World Conference on Tobacco or Health

 

 

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