Paris,
France - 31 May, 2008 –
The International Union Against
Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The
Union), an international
organisation established in 1920 to
fight TB and promote lung health
worldwide, today celebrates World No
Tobacco Day by calling on
governments to enact policies that
protect young people: bans on
tobacco promotion, increases in
taxes, and graphic picture warning.
Initiated by the member states of
the World Health Organization (WHO)
in 1987, World No Tobacco Day is
observed annually on 31 May to raise
awareness around the world about the
dangers of tobacco, the single
largest preventable cause of
disability and death. This year’s
theme is ‘Tobacco and Youth’.
Tobacco will kill 5 million people
this year, more than tuberculosis,
HIV/AIDS and malaria combined. By
2030, the death toll will rise to 8
million each year. The burden is
growing fastest in low- and
middle-income countries where today
85% of the world’s 1.8 billion young
people aged between 10 and 24 live.
Addressing tobacco use among young
people is a major challenge. The
younger children start to smoke or
use tobacco, the more likely they
are to become regular consumers, and
the less likely to quit.
Dr
Sinéad Jones, Director of the
Tobacco Control Department of The
Union highlights the importance of
banning tobacco promotion: “Every
day, some 100,000 young people try
tobacco for the first time. For
tobacco manufacturers, children and
young people are future customers.
Each year, the global tobacco
industry spends tens of billions of
dollars to glamorise and market
deadly products.
Governments must protect our young
people by banning all forms of
tobacco promotion. - Protecting
young people from a predatory
industry cannot be left to teachers,
parents or youth workers. While
youth programmes can be part of
tobacco control strategies, they
cannot – and must not - be the sole
strategy. Tobacco is not simply a
youth problem: it is an economic,
social and political issue”.
Dr Nils
E. Billo, Executive Director of The
Union, declared “Warning and
informing people of the dangers of
smoking is a must. Tobacco is set to
kill more than one billion people in
the 21st century. The Union works to
prevent and curb threats to lung
health. The Union tobacco control
programmes promote understanding of
the harms of tobacco use and
effective policies to reduce it.
Much has been achieved to curb the
epidemic, but governments must still
do more, especially in low and
middle income countries, where
tobacco use is fast becoming a
leading cause of death.”
The
Union assists countries in their
efforts to improve tobacco control,
providing permanent on-site
technical assistance; it conducts
operational research with its
network of international experts in
low- and middle-income settings to
invest in research, to offer
international training courses and
conferences worldwide, and it also
conducts extensive field work while
providing strong management tools to
support programmes and policies.
The
International Union Against
Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The
Union), is the only international
voluntary scientific organisation
with partners in all regions
providing a neutral platform to
fight TB, HIV, asthma, tobacco and
lung disease. The Union was
established in 1920 as a federation
of national associations, and today
provides direct field assistance to
over 75 countries, conducts clinical
trials and organises international
conferences and training courses. It
also publishes The International
Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung
Disease (IJTLD), which is the
reference for clinical research and
epidemiological studies on
tuberculosis. Among its
international initiatives, it
manages the grants programme for the
Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce
Tobacco Use, as well as the FIDELIS
Fund for Innovative DOTS Expansion
through Local Initiatives to Stop
TB, and many others.
Roxanne Van Gelder - Director of
Communications | Tel (+33) 1 44 32
04 41 | Fax (+33) 1 43 29 90 87 |
rvangelder@iuatld.org
