Dr Margaret Chan
World Health Organisation (WHO) has made a passionate appeal to world leaders to help curb the devastating effects of tobacco on human health, environment and livelihoods by increasing tobacco taxation in their various countries.
Dr Oleg Chestnov, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for NCDs and Mental Health, disclosed that many governments are taking action against tobacco, from banning advertising and marketing, to introducing plain packaging for tobacco products, and smoke-free work and public places.
“But one of the least used, but most effective, tobacco control measures to help countries address development needs is through increasing tobacco tax and prices,” he said.
Dr Chestnov stated that governments collect nearly $270 billion in tobacco excise tax revenues each year, but this could increase by over 50 percent, generating an additional $141 billion, simply from raising taxes on cigarettes by just $0.80 per pack (equivalent to one international dollar) in all countries.
Increased tobacco taxation revenues, he said, would strengthen domestic resource mobilisation, creating the fiscal space needed for countries to meet development priorities under the 2030 Agenda.
“Tobacco is a major barrier to development globally. Tobacco-related death and illness are drivers of poverty, leaving households without breadwinners, diverting limited household resources to purchase tobacco products rather than food and school materials, and forcing many people to pay for medical expenses,” Dr Douglas Bettcher, Director of WHO’s Department for the Prevention on NCDs, said.
He added that action to control it would provide countries with a powerful tool to protect their citizens and futures.
World Tobacco Day
World Tobacco Day is marked on May 30 to highlight how tobacco threatens the development of nations worldwide.
Tobacco use kills more than seven million people every year and costs households and governments over $1.4 trillion through healthcare expenditure and lost productivity.
“Tobacco threatens us all. Tobacco exacerbates poverty, reduces economic productivity, contributes to poor household food choices, and pollutes indoor air,” WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan said.
Dr Chan added, “But by taking robust tobacco control measures, governments can safeguard their countries’ futures by protecting tobacco users and non-users from these deadly products, generating revenues to fund health and other social services, and saving their environments from the ravages tobacco causes.”
All countries have committed to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which aims to strengthen universal peace and eradicate poverty. Key elements of this agenda include implementing the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, and by 2030 reducing by one third premature death from non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including heart and lung diseases, cancer and diabetes, for which tobacco use is a key risk factor.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri