Prelims: Current events of national and international importance
Why in news?
Recently Global Tobacco Epidemic 2025 report is released by World Health Organization with the support of Bloomberg Philanthropies.
- Global tobacco epidemic report – The report is released to assess how countries are implementing tobacco control measures recommended by the WHO under the MPOWER strategy, which aims to reduce tobacco use and save lives.
- Guidelines – The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) and its guidelines provide the foundation for countries to implement and manage tobacco control.
- MPOWER – To help make this a reality, WHO introduced the MPOWER measures.
- MPOWER measures are,
- M– Monitor tobacco uses and prevention policies;
- P– Protect people from tobacco smoke;
- O– Offer help to quit tobacco;
- W– Warn about dangers of tobacco;
- E– Enforce bans on tobacco advertising; and
- R– Raise taxes on tobacco products.
- The measures are intended to assist in the country-level implementation of effective interventions to reduce the demand for tobacco, contained in the WHO FCTC.
- The measure was started in 2007 with just 9 countries but it is now total of 110 countries now require these measures that protects 62% of the global population and 25 countries have adopted plain packaging.
Plain Packaging refers to the standardisation of tobacco product packaging to reduce its attractiveness and it is a proven tobacco control measure recommended by the WHO.
- World No tobacco day – To raise awareness about the dangers of tobacco and advocate for effective control policies that encourage consumers to quit, the WHO observes World No Tobacco Day every year on May 31.
- The theme for 2025 is “Protecting children from tobacco industry interference,”
- India is among the six countries that received 2025 Bloomberg Philanthropies Awards for Global Tobacco Control for prioritizing tobacco cessation approaches to reach a significant number of tobacco users in the country.
- Other countries that received the award were Mauritius, Mexico, Montenegro, Philippines and Ukraine.
India's Progress in Tobacco Control
- Strong graphic health warnings – India among top countries for best-practice health warnings on tobacco packs.
- 85% of cigarette pack surface covered with warnings which is among the world's largest.
- Decline in tobacco use – Overall tobacco use (including smokeless) is declining but still higher than global average:
- 38% men and 9% women in India use tobacco.
- Global average is 35% men, 8% women.
- Among youth (13-15 years), tobacco use is 8%, similar among boys and girls.
- Smoking prevalence in India is 7% among adults (2023).
- Areas for improvement in India – Need to ban point-of-sale tobacco ads completely.
- Raise taxes significantly to make tobacco products less affordable.
- Need to consider plain packaging for tobacco products.
Reference
The Indian Express| WHO report on global tobacco use
