The tobacco industry and its allies continuously market their products aggressively through campaigns that disseminate misleading information. This includes information about new and emerging products such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products. While these products are promoted with the so-called benefit of aiding tobacco cessation, they especially target young people who are non-smokers, with the sole intention of creating new cohorts of tobacco and nicotine users.
Our response must be firm, swift and uncompromising. This is why I am pleased to extend my congratulations and appreciation to countries, such as our host country of Panama, for acting resolutely in banning the commercialization of these products. Where they are not banned, I call on governments to adopt effective policies such as banning the advertising and promotion of new and emerging tobacco products, banning their use in public places and other proven measures already agreed to in previous decisions of the COP.
Let us ensure that our collective efforts close the gaps in tobacco control: let us commit to ensure that all countries establish smoke free environments, mandate effective packaging and labeling of all tobacco products, ban the advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco, and use taxes to reduce their consumption, among others.
While we still have far to journey, let us remember that our achievements in tobacco control across the globe, grounded in the supranational World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), are a testament that public health measures —based on multisectoral consensus and robust multidisciplinary evidence— are economically, legally, and politically sound. Resolute leadership by political leaders and health authorities is essential to tackle the opposition by the tobacco industry and its allies, as well as to foster coordination with ministries of economy, finance and trade, civil society and academia.
This whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach has allowed tobacco control measures litigated before international investment and trade jurisdictions, to be validated by the respective decision-making bodies and ultimately remain in force.
Moreover, lessons learned in tobacco control are applicable in addressing other Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD) risk factors, such as the harmful use of alcohol and unhealthy diets, where industries use the playbook developed by the tobacco industry to both market to consumers and attempt to influence regulatory oversight. We must urgently scale up our interprogrammatic efforts to protect the design, implementation, and evaluation of health policies, free from undue interference, to advance the prevention and control of NCD risk factors.
As we gather here today, let us remember the countless lives that have been adversely affected, both directly and indirectly by the devastating consequences of tobacco use, recalling that tobacco use causes more than eight million deaths worldwide and one million deaths in the Region of the Americas annually. We must also remember the global economic cost of smoking which is estimated at losses of US$1.4 trillion per year.
In closing I extend my heartfelt gratitude to Panama for its leadership role in tobacco prevention and control, and to the WHO FCTC Secretariat for our fruitful collaboration over several years.
I am confident that our time here will be marked by meaningful dialogues and significant strides toward a tobacco-free world. I am pleased to welcome you to Panama, a beacon of international cooperation in the battle against tobacco and let us all work together to make this 10th Conference of the Parties and the subsequent 3rd Meeting of the Parties both a resounding success.
📹 Video message of Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, PAHO/WHO Director at the COP10 (youtube.com)