Addictive, Lethal Consumer Product Will Kill 7 million people in 2018

Statement by Laurent Huber, Executive Director, ASH

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Jul 18, 2018, 10:43 ET

WASHINGTON, July 18, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The evidence in unequivocal: the most widely consumed nicotine delivery product, combustible cigarettes, an addictive and lethal product, kills more than 7 million people around the world every year, and this number is still rising.

If we want to avoid the predicted one billion deaths caused by tobacco products in the 21st century, governments need to do more to protect their citizens.

Why are cigarettes still a thing? It's time to wake up. Sign our petition at www.ash.org

Profiting from cigarettes, an addictive and lethal product, amounts to a human rights violation requiring a more robust response from governments. The onus to achieve a smoke-free future must be on governments, not the tobacco industry, which is motivated by financial rather than public health objectives.

The public health community must demand a regulatory response that is proportional to the harm cigarettes cause to end deaths from smoking as well as reduce nicotine addiction.

While the global tobacco treaty, WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), has been instrumental in changing the global conversation about tobacco, implementation has been disappointing and too many countries seem to see the FCTC as a menu rather than a recipe, implementing one measure and declaring success. As a result, the death toll keeps rising.

Surely everyone can agree that more needs to be done to address the death toll from combustible tobacco.

A human rights approach to ending the tobacco epidemic might be the answer for the 21^st century, as it frames the right to be free from smoking addiction and calls on governments to advance human development by implementing measures that decrease smoking. 154 organizations from around the world agreed by signing the Cape Town Declaration on Human Rights and a Tobacco-Free World, which went on to be adopted by the World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH) in March of this year and by the European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention Conference (ENSP) in July.

Ending the tobacco epidemic will require an accelerated and comprehensive implementation of the FCTC, in addition to new and innovative ways to reduce current smoking levels. The FCTC is the floor, not the ceiling. Governments should consider holding the tobacco industry criminally liable for the harm they cause as well as considering steps to phase cigarettes out of the market. Ending the completely preventable tobacco epidemic is a human rights and development challenge that the world CAN overcome this century.

ACTION ON SMOKING AND HEALTH
Founded in 1967, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) is America's oldest anti-tobacco organization, dedicated to a world with ZERO tobacco deaths. Because tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide, ASH supports bold solutions proportionate to the magnitude of the problem. www.ash.org

Contact: Megan Arendt, (202) 659 – 4310

SOURCE Action on Smoking and Health