WHO Tobacco Control Policies Estimated to Prevent 7.4 Million Premature Deaths by 2050
Tobacco control measures put in place in 41 countries between 2007 and 2010 are predicted to prevent an estimated 7.4 million premature deaths by 2050, according to a study published in the July issue of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.
The study is one of the first to look at the effect of measures since the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) was established in 2005 and demonstrates the success of the WHO FCTC in reducing tobacco use and, thus, saving lives.
“It’s a spectacular finding that by implementing these simple tobacco control policies, governments can save so many lives,” said lead author David Levy, PhD, Professor of Oncology at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington, DC.
MPOWER Measures
In 2008, WHO identified six evidence-based tobacco control measures that are the most effective in reducing tobacco use, and started to provide technical support to help countries fulfill their WHO FCTC obligations.
Known as “MPOWER,” these measures correspond to one or more of the demand reduction provisions included in the WHO FCTC: monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies; protecting people from tobacco smoke; offering help to quit tobacco use; warning people about the dangers of tobacco; enforcing bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship; and raising taxes on tobacco.
Study Details
The authors conducted a modeling exercise and projected the number of premature deaths that would be averted by 2050 through the implementation of one or more of these measures.
The study focused on the 41 countries that had implemented the demand reduction measures at “the highest level of achievement,” that is, at a level proven to attain the greatest impact. These countries represented nearly 1 billion people or one-seventh of the world’s population of 6.9 billion in 2008. The total number of smokers in those countries was nearly 290 million in 2007.
Of the 41 countries, 33 had put in place one MPOWER measure and the remaining 8 had implemented more than one. The highest-level MPOWER measures adopted from 2007 to 2010 will result in 15 million fewer smokers, and 7.4 premature deaths will be averted by 2050 as a result.
“In addition to some 7.4 million lives saved, the tobacco control policies we examined can lead to other health benefits such as fewer adverse birth outcomes related to maternal smoking, including low birth weight, and reduced health-care costs and less loss of productivity due to less smoking-related disease,” Dr. Levy said.
A Preventable Epidemic
If these high-impact tobacco control measures were implemented even more widely, millions more smoking-related deaths would be averted, said Douglas Bettcher, MD, Director of the Department of Noncommunicable diseases at WHO.
“Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death in the world, with 6 million smoking-attributable deaths per year today, and these deaths are projected to rise to 8 million a year by 2030, if current trends continue,” Dr. Bettcher said. “By taking the right measures, this tobacco epidemic can be entirely prevented.”
The content in this post has not been reviewed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Inc. (ASCO®) and does not necessarily reflect the ideas and opinions of ASCO®.
