World No Tobacco Day 2024: protecting children from tobacco industry interference

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Key facts

Tobacco kills up to half of its users who don’t quit .
Tobacco kills more than 8 million people each year, including an estimated 1.3 million non-smokers who are exposed to second-hand smoke .
Around 80% of the world’s 1.3 billion tobacco users live in low- and middle-income countries.
In 2020, 22.3% of the world’s population used tobacco: 36.7% of men and 7.8% of women.
To address the tobacco epidemic, WHO Member States adopted the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) in 2003. Currently 182 countries are Parties to this treaty.
The WHO MPOWER measures are in line with the WHO FCTC and have been shown to save lives and reduce costs from averted healthcare expenditure.

31 May is the World No Tobacco Day (WNTD). This year, once again, WHO and public health champions from across the globe will come together to raise awareness about the harmful influences of the tobacco industry on youth.

World No Tobacco Day 2024 will give a platform to young people across the world, who are urging governments to shield them from predatory tobacco marketing tactics. The industry targets youth for a lifetime of profits, creating a new wave of addiction. Children are using e-cigarettes at rates higher than adults in all regions and globally an estimated 37 million youth aged 13–15 years use tobacco.

Protecting children from tobacco industry interference

This theme of WNTD 2024 is focused on advocating for an end to the targeting of youth with harmful tobacco products. This discourse provides a platform for young people, policy-makers and tobacco control advocates globally to discuss the issue and to urge governments to adopt policies that shield young people from the manipulative practices of the tobacco and related industries. Although cigarette smoking has decreased over the years due to phenomenal efforts by the tobacco control community, more must be done to safeguard these vulnerable groups.

According to 2022 data, worldwide, at least 37 million young people aged 13–15 years use some form of tobacco. In the WHO European Region, 11.5% of boys and 10.1% of girls aged 13–15 years are tobacco users (4 million).

Why the tobacco industry is targeting youth

To keep making billions of dollars in revenues, the tobacco industry needs to replace the millions of customers who die and those who quit tobacco use every year. To achieve this goal, it works to create an environment that promotes uptake of its products among the next generation, including lax regulation to ensure its products are available and affordable. The industry also develops products and advertising tactics that appeal to children and adolescents, reaching them through social media and streaming platforms.

Products such as electronic cigarettes and nicotine pouches are gaining popularity among youth. It is estimated that 12.5% of adolescents in the European Region used e-cigarettes in 2022 compared to 2% of adults. In some countries of the Region, the rates of e-cigarette use among school children are 2–3 times higher than the rates of cigarette smoking.

The industry wilfully sells a deadly dependency to young people, therefore WNTD 2024 calls on the governments and tobacco control community to protect current and future generations and to hold the tobacco industry liable for the harm it causes.

Leading cause of death, illness and impoverishment

The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing over 8 million people a year around the world. More than 7 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while around 1.3 million are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke (4).

All forms of tobacco use are harmful, and there is no safe level of exposure to tobacco. Cigarette smoking is the most common form of tobacco use worldwide. Other tobacco products include waterpipe tobacco, cigars, cigarillos, heated tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco, pipe tobacco, bidis and kreteks, and smokeless tobacco products.

Around 80% of the 1.3 billion tobacco users worldwide live in low- and middle-income countries (5), where the burden of tobacco-related illness and death is heaviest. Tobacco use contributes to poverty by diverting household spending from basic needs such as food and shelter to tobacco. This spending behaviour is difficult to curb because tobacco is so addictive.

The economic costs of tobacco use are substantial and include significant health care costs for treating the diseases caused by tobacco use as well as the lost human capital that results from tobacco-attributable morbidity and mortality.

Key measures to reduce the demand for tobacco

Surveillance is key

Good monitoring tracks the extent and character of the tobacco epidemic and indicates how best to tailor policies. Almost half of the world’s population are regularly asked about their tobacco use in nationally representative surveys among adults and adolescents.

Second-hand smoke kills

Second-hand smoke is the smoke that fills restaurants, offices, homes, or other enclosed spaces when people smoke tobacco products. There is no safe level of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke. Second-hand smoke causes serious cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, including coronary heart disease and lung cancer, and kills around 1.3 million people prematurely every year.

Over a quarter of the world’s population living in 74 countries are protected by comprehensive national smoke-free laws.

Tobacco users need help to quit

Among smokers who are aware of the dangers of tobacco, most want to quit. Counselling and medication can more than double a tobacco user’s chance of successful quitting.

National comprehensive cessation services with full or partial cost-coverage are available to assist tobacco users to quit in only 32 countries, representing around a third of the world’s population.

Pictorial health warnings work

Hard-hitting anti-tobacco mass media campaigns and pictorial health warnings prevent children and other vulnerable groups from taking up tobacco use, and increase the number of tobacco users who quit.

Over half the world’s population live in the 103 countries that meet best practice for graphic health warnings, which includes among other criteria, large (50% or more of the main areas of the package) pictorial health warnings displayed in the local language.

1.5 billion people live in the 36 countries that have aired at least one strong anti-tobacco mass media campaign within the last 2 years.

Bans on tobacco advertising lower consumption

Tobacco advertising promotion and sponsorship (TAPS) increases and sustains tobacco use by effectively recruiting new tobacco users and discouraging tobacco users from quitting.

One third of countries (66), representing a quarter of the world’s population, have completely banned all forms of TAPS.

Taxes are effective in reducing tobacco use

Tobacco taxes are the most cost-effective way to reduce tobacco use, especially among youth and low-income groups. A tax increase that increases tobacco prices by 10% decreases tobacco consumption by about 4% in high-income countries and about 5% in low- and middle-income countries.

Even so, high tobacco taxes are rarely implemented. Only 41 countries, with 12% of the world’s population, have introduced taxes on tobacco products so that at least 75% of the retail price is tax.