The 2008 MPOWER Policy Package

In the WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2008, the World Health Organization finds that tobacco use already kills 5.4 million people a year and the epidemic is worsening, especially in the developing world where more than 80 percent of tobacco-caused deaths will occur in the coming decades.

Unless urgent action is taken, one billion people will die worldwide from tobacco use this century. Tobacco use is so devastating to the human body that it is a risk factor for six of the eight leading causes of death in the world.

The good news is that this epidemic is far from inevitable, and we know how to stop it.

Based on science and experience, the WHO has identified six cost-effective solutions that have been proven to reduce tobacco use and that every nation should implement. These solutions -- called MPOWER -- require nations to:

• Monitor tobacco use and assess the impact of tobacco prevention and cessation efforts;
• Protect everyone from secondhand smoke with laws that require smoke-free workplaces and public places;
• Offer help to every tobacco user to quit;
• Warn and effectively educate every person about the dangers of tobacco use with strong, pictorial health warnings and hard-hitting, sustained media campaigns to educate the public; and
• Enact and enforce comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorships and on the use of misleading terms such as “light” and “low-tar;” and
• Raise the price of tobacco products by increasing tobacco taxes.

More than 150 nations have committed to implementing these measures by ratifying the WHO tobacco control treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The scientific evidence is beyond dispute that these solutions work. Equally important, they are affordable and achievable. Most can be implemented at little or no cost to governments.