Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates Join to Combat Global Tobacco ...

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24 states (including New York and Washington states) and theDistrict of Columbia now have laws in effect that require 100%smoke free restaurants and bars. Uruguay, UK, France, New Zealand, Italy and Ireland are allsmoke-free. Cities such as Mexico City, Mexico; Abuja, Nigeria; Beijing, China;and other Olympic cities are implementing smoke-free laws andregulations. Uruguay, Turkey and other countries are implementing thecomprehensive tobacco control policies of the MPOWER package. Egypt has recently raised its tobacco tax. Brazil and other countries are using graphic pictorial warnings oncigarette packs to warn the public about the dangers of smoking. The Philippines has enacted a ban on tobacco advertising in allforms of mass media.
Earlier this year, Bloomberg and World Health OrganizationDirector-General Margaret Chan released the U.N.'s evidence-basedMPOWER package to help governments adopt the most effectivemeasures to counter tobacco use. Although MPOWER has been proven torapidly decrease tobacco use and save lives in New York City andelsewhere, less than 5 percent of the world's population is coveredby any of the MPOWER interventions.
The six components of the MPOWER package are:
M onitor tobacco use and the policies to prevent it
P rotect people from tobacco smoke
O ffer people help to quit tobacco use
W arn about the dangers of tobacco
E nforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship
R aise taxes on tobacco
"Bill and I want to highlight the enormity of this problem andcatalyze a global movement of governments and civil society to stopthe tobacco epidemic," said Bloomberg. "We challenge governments toshow leadership by implementing tobacco control measures, as anincreasing number are doing, and to increase funding for theseefforts."
Tobacco Background There are more than 1 billion smokers in the world today (more than1 in 4 adults), and tobacco kills more people than any other singleagent. Smoking kills half of smokers unless they quit, and many more aredisabled by tobacco. Those killed by tobacco lose on average 10-15years of life. Second-hand smoke causes lung disease, cancer, lowbirth weight and increased infant death as well as other problemsin those exposed. More than 5 million people are killed by tobacco each year - morethan AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. In this century,unless urgent action is taken tobacco could kill more than 1billion people. More than 80 percent of the world's tobacco-related deaths will bein low- and middle-income countries by 2030. The poorest households in Bangladesh spend almost 10 times as muchon tobacco as on education. Medical costs from smoking impoverish more than 50 million peoplein China; with 350 million smokers - a third of the world's total -China suffers about a million deaths from tobacco each year. Indonesians spend on average 2.5 times more on tobacco than oneducation, and 3.2 times more on tobacco than on health.Traditionally viewed as unacceptable practice, smoking amongIndonesian women is now seen as modern and trendy, especially inlarge cities. India's toll of premature, tobacco-related deaths is expected torise from 700,000 annually to 930,000 by the year 2010, with bidiscurrently accounting for 77 percent of the market for smokedtobacco. Studies indicate that bidi smokers are five to six timesmore likely to develop lung cancer than nonsmokers. The effectiveness of tobacco control interventions is wellestablished by rigorous scientific studies; implementing provenprograms can reduce smoking rates where they are high and preventan increase where rates are low.
About the Bloomberg Initiative The Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use supports publicsector and civil society efforts to implement proven strategies intobacco control in low- and middle-income countries, particularlyChina, India, Indonesia, Russian Federation and Bangladesh. The Bloomberg Initiative supports training programs, journalismworkshops, in-country development of mass media public educationcampaigns, capacity building and global monitoring through a WHOreport on country-specific tobacco control policies and apopulation-based, house-to-house adult survey of tobacco useprevalence. One aspect of the Bloomberg Initiative is to provide tobaccocontrol funds to low- and middle-income countries through acompetitive grants program ( http://www.tobaccocontrolgrants.org/ ); more than 125 grants have been awarded in 36 countries. The Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use is implementedthough five partner organizations: the Campaign for Tobacco FreeKids, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Foundation,the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the WorldHealth Organization and the World Lung Foundation.
Tobacco Control in New York City New York City's tobacco control program has included raising thetobacco tax, making virtually all workplaces smoke-free, runninghard-hitting public education campaigns, helping smokers quit andrigorously monitoring smoking rates and program results.