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About this site
This site provides
information, analysis and data on tobacco use and policies to
reduce it. It covers key issues that societies and policymakers
face when thinking about tobacco and its control.
Explore this site if
you are interested in:
- bans on advertising and promotion
- country-specific information about
tobacco
- death and disease from tobacco
- cost-effectiveness of
interventions to control tobacco
- costs and benefits of tobacco
control
- nicotine addiction
- nicotine replacement therapy
- smuggling
- tobacco and the poor
- tobacco taxes
- tobacco use
- tobacco use and control in
developing countries
In the database
you’ll find key country-specific
data on
- tobacco use
- deaths caused by tobacco use
- expenditures on health
- tobacco tax structures, levels and
revenues
- regulations and restrictions on
tobacco
- tobacco leaf and cigarette
production
- employment related to tobacco
- trade: imports and exports (volume
and value) of tobacco leaves and cigarettes
The 13 FAQs (frequently asked
questions) cover:
- the global debate on tobacco
control: the World Bank’s role and policy, government
strategies, cost-effectiveness
- myths and realities: tobacco and
the poor, what smokers know about the risks of
tobacco, tobacco taxes, rates and revenues, smuggling, impact
of tobacco controls on farmers
Curbing the Epidemic: Governments and the Economics of
Tobacco Control, World Bank
Development in Practice series. 1999. Washington DC. 104 pages.
This report will help
analysts and policymakers intent on improving health within the
framework of sound economic policies.
Full text available on this site.
(you can download the whole report, or individual chapters).
Click
here to order printed copies
Stock no. 14519 (ISBN
0-8213-4519-2). US$25.00
Or contact World
Bank Publications:
Via e-mail: books@worldbank.org
Online: http://www.worldbank.org/publications
World Bank
Publications
P.O. Box 960, Herndon, VA 20172-0960, USA
Tel: 703-661-1580 or 800-645-7247 Fax: 703-661-1501
Key message:
Tobacco kills.
Smoking already causes one in 10 adults deaths worldwide. Until
recently, deaths and disease caused by smoking mainly affected
rich nations but the impact is now rapidly
shifting to the developing world. By 2030, tobacco will
kill 10 million people each year, the biggest single cause of
death worldwide. Seventy percent of those deaths will be in
low-and middle-income countries, where tobacco use is growing
fast, and many people do not know the risks.
Few people dispute that smoking is
damaging health on a global scale. However, many governments
have been wary of acting to control smoking
through higher taxes, comprehensive bans on advertising and
promotion, or restrictions on smoking in public places due to
concerns that interventions such as these could have harmful
economic consequences.
"Curbing
the Epidemic" addresses important economic and
social issues that confront policymakers when dealing with
tobacco. The report:
- estimates the gains in health and
lives that tobacco control could achieve
- assesses the consequences of
tobacco control for economies and individuals
- demonstrates that the
economic fears that have deterred policymakers from taking
action are largely unfounded.
Countries that adopt measures to
reduce tobacco use can prevent millions of premature deaths and
much disability, especially among the poor. The most effective
(and cost-effective) measures are:
- taxes on cigarettes and
other tobacco products
- non-price measures, especially
comprehensive bans on advertising and promotion of tobacco,
information, including prominent health warning labels, and
smoking restrictions
- cessation treatments and
programs: nicotine replacement therapy, counseling and
support, anti-depressants etc that can help smokers to quit.
These measures generally will not
harm economies. In almost all countries, there would be no net
loss of jobs. Evidence shows that higher tobacco taxes generate increases
in revenues. Even where smuggling becomes a serious problem, tax
increases bring greater revenues and reduce smoking.
Governments, international agencies,
NGOs and citizens can all help to reduce the devastating impact on
global health from smoking. Moderate
action could win substantial health gains in the 21st
century.
The report is the outcome of strong
collaboration among governments, non governmental organizations
(NGOs), researchers and Universities, agencies within the United
Nations system, including the World Health Organization, UNICEF,
the Food and Agricultural Organization and the International
Monetary Fund, and the Office on Smoking and Health at the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Some comments about the report:
"The World
Bank comprehensively dismisses the arguments of the tobacco
industry that tobacco control measures impair freedom of
choice."
-- The Financial Times, May 18, 1999
"Smoking
is a very big killer across the world, and its broad inroad into
the Third World will kill more and more people in the future. This
report provides an understanding of the nature and magnitude of
the problem and how it can be countered. It is a fine balance of
information and a timely plan of action."
-- Professor
Amartya Sen.
1998 Nobel Laureat in Economics
"Tobacco
is a major killer worldwide. The biggest cost from tobacco is the
enormous toll it brings from disease, suffering and family
distress. Health, and not economic arguments, are the reason for
controlling tobacco, but economic arguments are raised as an
obstacle to tobacco control policies."
Dr.
Gro Harlem Brundtland,
Director General of the World Health Organization
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