Good morning from Geneva and on behalf of the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), welcome to this webinar. As co-sponsor of this meeting, I am delighted to be presenting this important report on Implementation Practices in Smokeless Tobacco Control.
I want to acknowledge the work of Dr Dhirendra Sinha who led the preparation of this document and all those colleagues who have contributed during its finalization. I also offer my thanks to the Government of Norway, which provided funding.
I said this report is important and I meant it. Smokeless tobacco, just like smoked tobacco, kills and produces a range of serious health conditions. But there is the common belief, that products such as chewing tobacco, for example, are somehow safer than smoked tobacco. This is not true. At least 350,000 people a year die by using smokeless tobacco products.
Smoked tobacco, in particular cigarettes, are the biggest problem in many regions, but in South Asia, smokeless tobacco is much more popular and represents an enormous health problem.
That reality has moved the tobacco control community to look for imaginative and effective responses. Examples of these practices are included in the report. We hope this will provide inspiration for those WHO FCTC Parties that have not yet tackled the smokeless tobacco issue head-on (and sadly, that still applies to many Parties.)
The Convention is clear. Its definition of tobacco products includes products used for “smoking, sucking, chewing or snuffing”. Therefore all the provisions of the Convention (perhaps with the exception of those related to tobacco smoke) should be applied to smokeless tobacco products.
The Convention Secretariat is determined to cooperate with Parties to confront the issue, and we are working hard to provide evidence-based guidance. Right now, we are collaborating with the WHO FCTC Knowledge Hub on Smokeless Tobacco and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids on a manual to help Parties strengthen their laws to provide a firm backbone for effective smokeless tobacco control.
We are also collaborating with WHO to ensure that its global oral health action plan highlights the impact of tobacco products, and specifically, smokeless tobacco, on oral health.
The prevalence of tobacco smoking has declined in those countries that have comprehensively applied the Convention. We have learned lessons from this work which we can now apply to smokeless tobacco too. For example, some of the work in India has been fabulous; I’m thinking especially of the campaign to ban gutka, which has been intelligent and relentless.
Gutka, a chewing tobacco made with betel and other ingredients, is a leading cause of oral cancer. Work by government, non-governmental organizations and medical staff concentrated on multiple avenues of attack against this product, which is not only unhealthy in itself, but also unhygienic because users have to spit out the saliva.
The message is that carefully thought-out campaigns which bring together government, professionals and activists can bring big victories.
Thank you, once again, and I hope you will benefit from the good practice examples contained in today’s report.