Good afternoon, Ladies, and Gentlemen,
It is a pleasure to join WHO, governments, Civil Society Organizations, and other stakeholders around the world, to mark the World No Tobacco Day 2025.
This year's theme, “Unmasking the Appeal: Exposing Industry Tactics on Tobacco and Nicotine Products,” is close to my heart, given the aggressive targeting of our children and young people with attractive products.
The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (the WHO FCTC), which reaffirms the right of people to the highest standard of health, has accelerated tobacco control progress.
In February, we celebrated 20 years of entry into force of the WHO FCTC, which has saved millions of lives through effective measures such as smokefree laws, health warnings, offering help to quit, advertising bans and high tobacco taxes. However, with 1.3 billion tobacco users and around 8 million annual deaths, globally, our fight is far from over. These preventable deaths are unacceptable.
Tobacco and nicotine industries ‘prey’ on people, particularly children and youth, luring them into addiction, maximizing profit at the cost of health.
Recently, these industries have intensified their tactics with new products like heated tobacco products, e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches, using appealing flavours, sleek and trendy designs, as well as attractive packaging that disguises these products as fun and ‘harmless’ to entice younger groups.
The alarming trend of children and young people using these products must be addressed.
It is important to strengthen the implementation of the WHO FCTC for tobacco products and where the new tobacco and nicotine products are not banned, applying strong regulations is essential.
This includes:
- implementing Article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC to prevent industry interference
- decrease the attractiveness of the products by banning flavours, applying plain packaging and regulating product design, among others
- advertising bans that apply also to social media; and
- tobacco and nicotine-free public places
This November, the 11th session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO FCTC will be held and Parties will consider forward looking measures to further advance our global tobacco control efforts.
Finally, I call on all stakeholders: governments, civil society, and the public, to unite in safeguarding the health and well-being of our children and youth.
Thank you.
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- WNTD campaign
- Guidelines for implementation article 13 and specific guidelines to address cross-border tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship and the depiction of tobacco in entertainment media for implementation of Article 13 of the WHO FCTC
- 20 years of the WHO FCTC