WHO - Framework Convention on Tobacco Control: why is it important?

Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death in the world, with an estimated 4.9 million deaths a year. If current smoking patterns continue, the toll will nearly double by 2020. A high percentage of deaths (70%) will occur in developing countries. Tobacco kills people at the height of their productivity, depriving families of breadwinners and nations of a healthy workforce.

Increased trade, foreign investment, global marketing and other complex international phenomena have led to the globalization of the tobacco epidemic. As the epidemic transcends national borders, its control requires international cooperation and multilateral regulation.

The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) was developed as a global response to the globalization of the tobacco epidemic. Adopted in June of 2003, the WHO FCTC quickly became one of the most widely embraced treaties in United Nations' history, becoming international binding law on 27 February 2005.

There is no doubt that reducing the rates of uptake and consumption of tobacco will save lives and that the WHO FCTC is the evidence-based tool with which to do it. It has been projected that with a progressive 50% reduction in uptake and consumption rates, as many as 200 million lives could be saved by the year 2050 ― and hundreds of millions more thereafter.

YOU can also visit Tobacco Free initiative from the WHO by clicking this text.