World Heart Federation calls for all states to set tobacco-use end dates

At the Tobacco End Game conference in New Delhi, India, the World Heart Federation (WHF) on Monday called for countries worldwide to follow the example set by nations such as Finland, New Zealand and Scotland in setting a target year for the ending of tobacco use among their populations, according to a Science Codex story.

“Ending” tobacco use in this sense, the WHF said,  meant reducing the prevalence of smoking to 5 percent or below, as well as implementing further measures included in the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

“Finland (2030), Scotland (2034), New Zealand (2025) and other nations, including a group of Pacific Island States (2025), have all publicly announced a ‘target year’ to bring their tobacco use down to below 5 percent,” the WHF said.

“Tobacco use is one of the main risk factors for heart disease and causes millions of premature deaths each year worldwide.

“Despite this, tobacco companies continue to market their deadly product and are particularly active in low-income and middle-income nations, where tobacco control measures are not as strong as in many high-income countries.”

The Science Codex story is at http://www.sciencecodex.com/world_heart_federation_calls_on_all_countries_to_follow_example_of_finland_new_zealand-119018.