Tobacco Control, Challenges and Solutions

Smoking is a major public health challenge. In addition, it cause economic damage due to lost productivity and increased health care costs. In this article, challenges and suggestions for controlling this health and social problem are presented.

National and international referrences were used to prepare this article.

The World Health Organization led the development of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the first global health treaty to strengthen efforts in order to reduce using tobacco among signatory members. The organization introduced the MPOWER package, which contain six evidence-based control measures to help countries implement tobacco control policies,. Worldwide, reducing smoking can be achieved by doubling the adjusted inflation prices or tripling the indirect tobacco tax. Other interventions recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and the MPOWER six-point initiative can also help reduce tobacco consumption. The world has changed dramatically since the last reported of WHO on the global tobacco epidemic in 2019.

Several items can help tobacco controling program such as increase tobacco tax, supply and access to smoking cessation treatments, increase health warnings in tobacco packaging, increase the accuracy of tobacco epidemiological data and reduce exposure to second-hand smoke.