MPOWER Campaign Aims to Limit the Spread of Smoking

According to an article published in the Washington Post on February 8, 2008, The World Health Organization (WHO) has begun a global campaign to limit the spread of smoking. The campaign for the Tobacco Free Initiative includes a broad look at tobacco use, smoking control and taxation policies in 179 countries. It also includes six strategies to reduce tobacco use.

The initiative was launched in New York with a 329-page report at a press conference held in midtown Manhattan. WHO officials presented the findings along with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose charitable organization, Bloomberg Philanthropies, contributed two million dollars to conduct the study.

The use of tobacco is a risk factor for six of the world's eight leading causes of death. Smoking currently causes about one in every 10 deaths of adults. 5.4 million people die each year (one every six seconds) from lung cancer, heart disease, or other illness directly linked to tobacco use. Smoking killed 100 million people in the 20th century. The yearly death toll could pass eight million as soon as 2030. 80% of those deaths will be in the developing world, where tobacco use is growing most rapidly as tobacco companies target new customers, especially women, in low-income countries.

WHO officials said that one billion people could die of tobacco-related illness this century. Douglas Bettcher, director of the WHO Tobacco Free Initiative, stated, “What we're saying is that we don't want to let that happen. We want to see the operating environment of the tobacco companies become as difficult as possible in the near future.”

Although WHO cannot enforce tobacco control in these countries, it hopes to convince these countries to make the initiative a priority and that their efforts are especially beneficial to their poorest citizens. According to Patrick Petit, a WHO economist who assisted in the production of the initiative’s report, “In many countries, money spent by the poor on cigarettes is taken away from what they could spend on health and education.”

WHO has branded the campaign MPOWER. Each letter represents one of six strategies. The theme of the campaign is “fresh and alive.” Press materials came with a box that looks like a pack of cigarettes and contains a pad and pens describing the elements of the campaign.

The six strategies are:

• Monitoring tobacco use and control policy
• Protecting people by enforcing "smoke-free" laws
• Offering smokers nicotine replacement and counseling programs
• Warning on cigarette packs about the hazards of smoking
• Enforcing bans on tobacco advertising and promotion
• Raising the price of tobacco through taxes

Studies have shown that raising the price of cigarettes is the most powerful strategy. For every 10% increase in price, cigarette consumption drops about 4% overall and about 8% in young people.

Mr. Bloomberg has called for another 50-cent increase in the New York City’s cigarette tax, which would boost the total for city and state taxes on cigarettes to $3.50 a pack. Bloomberg also favors using gruesome graphics such as a skull with crossbones on cigarette cartons to deter smokers, a technique used in Canada and Brazil.

The report also breaks down tobacco consumption and prevention efforts country by country. According to the report, nearly two thirds of the world's smokers live in 10 countries: China, India, Japan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, the U.S., Brazil, Germany, Russia, and Turkey. China alone accounts for nearly 30% of all smokers worldwide. Currently, only 5% of the world's population lives in countries (predominately in Western Europe) that have any antismoking policies in place.

A vice president for communications at Philip Morris International, Michael Pfeil, told the Associated Press that the company advocates, “for tough, fair, cohesive regulation of the industry,” and believes many countries need to do more. He said the company has a duty as a commercial entity to increase its business, but he added that its, “interest is in marketing to adult smokers who are smoking competitive products.”