WHO MPower – An Initiative Geared Toward Reversing The Tobacco Epidemic

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10 years ago

Do you perceive tobacco use solely as a personal choice&quest; Well, you are not alone&period; Millions around the globe make the same mistake&period; The truth of the matter is most smokers (and also tobacco chewers) want to quit, but in most cases their addiction to nicotine gets the better of them&period; Moreover, a powerful global lobby is constantly at work&period; Billions and billions of dollars are being spent on advertising to maintain and increase tobacco use, making smoking prevention a far-fetched dream, particularly in the developing countries&period; Women and youngsters living in these pockets are the soft targets No wonder the tobacco industry views this segment as having the greatest potential for increasing their sales and profits&period; To add salt to the injury, governments in some of these countries have to consider the interests of the people, whose bread and butter come from the very sector&period; This further impedes action&period;&NewLine;<img class="size-full wp-image-4968 aligncenter" title="WHO MPower – An Initiative Geared Toward Reversing The Tobacco Epidemic" alt="WHO MPower – An Initiative Geared Toward Reversing The Tobacco Epidemic" src="https&colon;//medusamagazine&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Tobacco&period;jpg" width="617" height="331" />&NewLine;Inactions by the States Paved the Way for WHO&NewLine;Decades flew by without countries paying any serious heed to the problem, or devising well-defined strategies to deal with the tobacco epidemic&period; At this juncture, WHO decided to intervene and take control&period; It came up with its Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) and persuaded a number of countries to join the program&period; Currently the convention has 168 signatories and more than 150 parties&period;&NewLine;Tobacco control goals cannot be achieved without a strong political will&period; It also calls for strong coordination among the government agencies, NGOs, and academic and corporate sectors, both at the domestic and international levels&period; WHO FCTC succeeded in bringing nations, institutions and various organizations under one umbrella to work toward a single mission – fight against the tobacco epidemic&period; However, the nations and other signatories needed a well-documented policy package to get going&period; MPOWER was created for the purpose&period; With a number of policies and intervention guidelines, it provides WHO-signatories with a kind of blueprint for the creation of a tobacco-free world&period;&NewLine;MPOWER at a Glance&NewLine;This policy document has been designed to serve as a country-level reference point for all stakeholders&period; Here is a summary of the policy recommendations made by MPOWER&colon;&NewLine; M &&num;8211&semi; Monitor Tobacco Use&NewLine;Obtain demographic data periodically to monitor tobacco consumption patterns among youth and adults&period;&NewLine;P- Protect People From Tobacco Smoke&NewLine;Create smoke-free environments in hospitals, campuses, and in all indoor public places including offices, restaurants and bars&period;&NewLine;O- Offer Help To Quit Tobacco Use&NewLine;Make quit-tobacco advice available as part of primary healthcare&period; Offer low-cost pharmacological treatment as part of support community initiatives&period;&NewLine;W- Warn About The Dangers Of Tobacco&NewLine;Assist in building national and international partnerships, while ALLOWING greater access to financial resources for anti-tobacco activities&period; Also, introduce effective package warning labels, launch counter-tobacco advertising, and encourage media coverage of anti-tobacco activities&period;&NewLine;E- Enforce Bans On Tobacco Advertising, Promotion and Sponsorship&NewLine;Enact laws to ban direct promotion of tobacco and sponsorship of such products&period;&NewLine;Raise Taxes On Tobacco Products&NewLine;Increase tax on tobacco products and revise them periodically to keep pace with inflation and the consumers&&num;8217&semi; purchasing power&period; Also, reduce illicit trading&period;&NewLine;There has been a great progress in global smoking prevention efforts over the past few years&period; MPOWER had a key role to play in this achievement&period; It garnered coordinated support and cooperation from the nations, governmental and private agencies&period; It has not only enabled the stakeholders to translate the policies upheld by WHO FCTC into practice, but also promoted great international camaraderie&period; Countries that are still lagging in this area should follow the MPOWER prescribed steps to accelerate their smoking secession programs to save millions of more lives&period;&NewLine;