World's First Health Treaty

This is something BIG. This is something that can and will save lives- even millions each year. World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Margaret Chan said, "We hold in our hands, the solution to the global tobacco epidemic that threatens the lives of one billion men, women and children during this century." That would be about 10 million lives a year for the next 100 years! If this tobacco epidemic is not addressed, it would claim the equivalent of the entire population of the state of Michigan (the 8th most populated state in the U.S.) every year for the next century!

Unfortunately, very few people know about this world treaty; the treaty that has been the most widely embraced treaty in all of UN history. It is the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). In response to the globalization of the tobacco epidemic the WHO took charge and formed the FCTС, which provides countries with a framework of proven public health policies and strategies that, when adopted, will reduce supply and demand of tobacco products. Since it opened for signature in June 2003, the treaty has received 168 signatories and covers 85% of the world population.

While the WHO FCTC has made huge strides in combating the global tobacco epidemic, there is still much to do. Even after a nation ratifies the treaty, it is then up to that nation to implement it, which will demand much enthusiasm and political commitment. Our advocacy of the treaty is greatly needed, especially here in the United States where we are yet to ratify the FCTC. That should be humiliating to a country that prides itself in being a world leader (for more information on the United States and tobacco control, read The United States: No Longer a World Leader in Tobacco Control.

For more details on the FCTC please visit the World Health Organization.

Country Spotlight: RUSSIA

Two years ago I returned from an incredible life-shaping experience in Russia where I had spent two years living among, and serving, the Russian people along the Volga River. The more I grew to love the people, the more I grew in empathy toward the Russians in their particular challenges which they face. Smoking is one addiction in which so many are entangled, and many were brought to that point in their ignorance of youth as victims of conspiring tobacco corporations.
Former Russia president, Vladimir Putin, ratified the WHO FCTC last year which marks a huge step for Russia in the direction of health. Here are a couple sobering stats about tobacco in Russia:

• Tobacco has been a major contributor to Russia' low male life expectancy. In the year 1965 a Russian male was expected to live to 65 years of age, whereas up until recently the Russian male life expectancy was below 60 years old. The 1960's were largely when the USSR got "hooked" on cigarettes.
  
• The most current research conducted by the World Health Organization indicates that approximately 70% of men and 27% of women in Russia currently use tobacco.
  

This May and June I will be in Russia conducting a research project that ultimately seeks to advocate the further implementation of the ratified WHO FCTC. We will collect a national representative opinion concerning graphic tobacco warning labels, which data can then be used as ammunition in legislating for the implementation of graphic warning labels in Russia. Advocating the development and implementation of the FCTC is important since while a country may ratify the treaty, that country is the one who determines which policies they will actually adopt into legislation.