5th anniversary of the entry into force of the WHO FCTC
February 2010

WSMI attended the ceremony marking the 5th anniversary of the entry into force of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which took place in the Geneva headquarters of the World Health Organization on 26 February 2010. The Convention aims to protect people from the harmful consequences of tobacco consumption by reducing the demand for and supply of tobacco. With 168 parties to date, it has quickly become one of the most rapidly embraced treaties in the history of the United Nations. Tobacco use is indeed one of the biggest public health threats and one of the main risk factors for a number of chronic diseases, including cancer, lung diseases and cardiovascular diseases. As highlighted by Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the WHO, in her speech: "developing countries have the greatest vulnerability and least capacity to cope with the added costs and demands from the wave of chronic disease that inevitably follows increased tobacco use (...) In many affluent countries, tobacco use remains high in lower income groups and disadvantaged populations".
WSMI is pleased to be working with WHO on smoking cessation aids. There is strong, consistent evidence  that the use of Nicotine Replacement Therapy products (NRT) increases the rate of success in quitting smoking, is cost effective and safe. Nonprescription availability of NRT products has been shown to  efficiently  support individual countries' smoking cessation efforts.

[WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control]