Clear The Air News Tobacco Blog Rotating Header Image

February 14th, 2008:

WHO Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation

WHO Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation (TobReg) report on the scientific basis of tobacco product regulation

WHO Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation – get the PDF document here.

The Tobacco Free Initiative announces the release of a WHO Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation (TobReg) report on the scientific basis of tobacco product regulation. This report presents policy recommendations on the contents and design features of tobacco products, their relationship to dependence potential and consumer appeal; candy-flavoured tobacco products; biomarkers of tobacco exposure and resulting health effects; and, maximum limits for tobacco smoke toxicants. The Study Group hopes that these recommendations will be useful to WHO Member States, and national policymakers and regulators. The English printed version is now available, and the other UN language versions will be available soon.

10 Facts On Tobacco And Second-Hand Smoke

World Health Organisation

Fact 1
Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death in the world. It causes 1 in 10 deaths among adults worldwide. In 2005, tobacco caused 5.4 million deaths, or an average of one death every 6 seconds. The death toll is projected to reach more than 8 million by 2030 if current trends continue.

Fact 2
Tobacco kills up to half of its regular users. On average 29% of people around the world are smoking tobacco. Smoking is more common among men – 47.5% of all men smoke compared to 10.3% of women.

Fact 3
More than 80% of the world’s more than one billion smokers live in low- and middle-income countries. Unless urgent action is taken, by 2030, more than 80% of tobacco related deaths will occur in the developing world

Fact 4
Tobacco caused 100 million deaths in the 20th century. If current trends continue, there could be up to one billion deaths in the 21st century.

Fact 5
The smoke produced by burning tobacco products is known as second-hand tobacco smoke or environmental tobacco smoke. Tobacco smoke in enclosed spaces is breathed by everyone, exposing both smokers and non-smokers to its harmful effects. This is commonly referred to as involuntary smoking or passive smoking.

Fact 6
Second-hand tobacco smoke is dangerous to health. There are about 4000 known chemicals in tobacco smoke. Second-hand smoke also causes heart disease and many serious respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in adults which can lead to death.

Fact 7
An estimated 700 million children, or almost half of the world’s children, breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke, particularly at home. Second-hand smoke causes many serious diseases in children and worsens conditions such as asthma.

Fact 8
The International Labour Organization estimates that at least 200 000 workers die every year due to exposure to smoke at work. The United States Environmental Protection Agency estimates that second-hand smoke is responsible for about 3000 lung cancer deaths annually among non-smokers in the country.

Fact 9
Exposure to second-hand smoke also imposes economic costs on individuals, businesses and society as a whole, in the form of direct and indirect medical costs and productivity losses.

Fact 10
There is no safe level of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke. Neither ventilation nor filtration, even in combination, can reduce the exposure indoors to levels that are considered acceptable. Only 100% smoke-free environments provide effective protection.

UN Treaties Are National Issues

SCMP

On behalf of the World Health Organisation, I would like to answer the questions that Jake van der Kamp asks in his Monitor column (“Smoking out the real victim of heavy tobacco taxation”, February 6) about the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), to which Hong Kong is now a party. Van der Kamp asks: “Did Legco approve it, did Exco sanction it, did the chief executive sign it into law?” This is not the way of any of UN conventions.

The signatories are national governments; thus in Hong Kong’s case, since 1997, China. In keeping with this, and specifically with regard to the FCTC, on October 11, 2005, the government of China informed the UN secretary general of the following: “In accordance with the provision of article 153 of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China and article 138 of the Basic Law of the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, the government of the People’s Republic of China decides that the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control . . . shall apply to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China.”

As with all UN treaties, Hong Kong’s reporting mechanism is also through China.

Dr Judith Mackay, senior policy adviser, World Health Organisation