WHO's 2017 Global Tobacco Epidemic Report
The latest report on the global tobacco epidemic from the World Health Organization (WHO) is now available to download.
Among its key findings is that around 4.7 billion people (63% of the world’s population) are now covered by at least one ‘best practice’ tobacco control measure from the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC).
The number has quadrupled since 2007, thanks to greater government action to implement the guidelines.
This has in turn prevented millions of tobacco-related early deaths, as well as saved hundreds of billions of dollars in healthcare costs.
Despite such good results, the report warns that governments still need to do more to prioritise or finance this area of work, while continuing to face tough opposition from the tobacco industry to fully implement the measures.
