FCTC success questioned

The World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) may have been less effective in reducing smoking than is often claimed, according to two studies led by health researchers at York University. In some countries, cigarette consumption has actually increased since the treaty’s adoption in 2003.

While high-income and European countries experienced a decrease in annual consumption by more than 1,000 cigarettes per adult since 2003, low- and middle-income and Asian countries showed an increase of more than 500 cigarettes annually per adult, according to the studies.

Researchers suggest that varied implementation of tobacco control policies and shifting trends in cigarette affordability across countries may have incentivized the tobacco industry to move its lobbying, marketing and promotion activities away from countries with strict guidelines and toward countries with less stringent measures.

“We found quantitative evidence that could support that idea: that tobacco companies, after the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, specifically went to jurisdictions that were not implementing proven tobacco control policies as rapidly as we saw in high income countries,” Steven Hoffman, lead author of the studies, was quoted as saying by MedicalXpress.

“If this is true, this means the FCTC could even have unintentionally caused harm by encouraging tobacco companies to target the many more people who live in these areas and Asian countries who would have fewer governmental protections against the companies’ efforts.”

Published in The British Medical Journal, the studies are the first scientific evaluations of the FCTC’s effectiveness on a global level.

“This study sets a new gold standard for how to evaluate international laws,” said co-author Poirier. “The FCTC was widely celebrated at the time it was launched and no one has actually evaluated that treaty on a global level until now.”