Tobacco Control Remains A Major Challenge, Says New Tobacco Use Study

In an international study conducted on tobacco use worldwide, the control of the use of tobacco continues to remain a challenge as pro-tobacco forces are powerful enough to inhibit the less well-funded tobacco strategies.

Gary A. Giovino, a professor at the University of Buffalo, in explaining the root cause for the spread of tobacco use around the world, says, “Governments around the world need to start giving economic and regulatory advantages to agricultural products that promote health instead of to products like tobacco that kill people.”

Through the use of marketing and mass media campaigns, smoking has been made out to be glamorous often equating its use with Western themes such as equality and freedom – and are targeting women, in particular.

The study was conducted in countries such as Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay and Vietnam while the findings were compared to the use of tobacco in the United Kingdom and the United States.

What keeps current smokers smoking and tempts non-smokers to experiment is the way by which tobacco companies reduce the harshness of tobacco use while also creating new taste sensations thus increasing, nicotine delivery.

What makes this phenomenon so deadly is that in comparison to the 100 million lives lost in the previous century, it seems as if that number will increase exponentially to about a billion deaths because of tobacco use.

This study was published in The Lancet, and advocated the move to allocate more resources that will implement tobacco control strategies, much like the MPOWER strategies of the WHO, and alter the current imbalance of power.