From Caribbean360

PAHO, the regional office for the Americas of the World Health Organization (WHO), applying large, graphic health warnings on tobacco packaging could help prevent one million deaths annually.

WASHINGTON D.C., United States, Wednesday February 19, 2014, CMC – The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is urging Caribbean countries to speed up the adaption of laws to control the tobacco “epidemic,” saying that, despite progress in the countries of the Americas, the epidemic continues to grow.

In a new report, PAHO, the regional office for the Americas of the World Health Organization (WHO), said applying at least six measures could help prevent one million deaths annually.

The six measures comprise large, graphic health warnings on tobacco packaging that effectively inform consumers.

They include protect young people from aggressive tobacco industry marketing; banning all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship; monitor use of tobacco products; protect people from exposure to second-hand smoke; offer help to quit smoking; and raise taxes on tobacco products.

“These are the six practical, affordable, and achievable measures recommended by WHO to help countries implement specific measures in the Convention,” PAHO said.

The “Report on Tobacco Control in the Region of the Americas 2013,” summarises progress in the implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the first international public health treaty, which entered into force in 2005.

In the Americas, PAHO said 29 of 35 countries are parties to the treaty, which obliges its States Parties to apply a series of polices and measures to reduce tobacco consumption and protect their populations from second-hand smoke.

“The results are encouraging, since in the nine years that the agreement has been in effect, many lives have been saved,” said Adriana Blanco, PAHO/WHO regional advisor on tobacco.

Blanco also warned that a large proportion of the region’s population, especially young people, (still) continue to be exposed to tobacco smoke in public places, as well as to promotional activities aimed at encouraging the use of a highly addictive product.

PAHO said there are 145 million smokers in the region, accounting for 12 per cent of the world’s total, estimating that about one million people lose their lives as a consequence of tobacco every year.

“The addiction, disease and death associated with tobacco are absolutely preventable,” Blanco said.

According to the report, less than half the population is protected from exposure to second-hand smoke through 100 per cent smoke-free environments, and barely a quarter of the population is protected from tobacco advertising.

Furthermore, the report says tobacco packaging only contains graphic health warnings on tobacco’s harmful effects to health in fewer than half the countries.

For tobacco control programmes to have a greater impact, the report urges that they include interventions that not only prevent young people from starting to smoke but also encourage smokers to quit.

“The great burden of mortality due to tobacco in the first half of this century can only be avoided if the people who are smoking today give up tobacco use,” the report stated.

It also said that the tobacco industry “continues to market and promote its products to low-income populations, women and young people, while implementing increasingly aggressive strategies against tobacco control policies”.

The report states that the “age-standardized prevalence” of tobacco use among adults in the Americas is 22 per cent, varying widely among countries, from 41 percent in Chile to seven per cent in Barbados and St. Kitts and Nevis.

It said tobacco kills six million people annually in the world, estimating that, if the current trends continue, the number would reach eight  million by 2030.

PAHO said smoking is the most important common risk factor for chronic non-communicable diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases.

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