Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO launched a new report showing that while progress has been made, not a single country fully implements all key tobacco control measures. This landmark new report presents the first comprehensive worldwide analysis of tobacco use and control efforts based on data from 179 countries. Only 5% of the world’s population lives in countries that fully protect their population with any one of the key measures that reduce smoking rates.

It provides countries with a roadmap to reverse the devastating global tobacco epidemic that could kill up to one billion people by the end of this century. The report outlines the MPOWER package, a set of six key tobacco control measures that reflect and build on the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

The WHO Report of the Global Tobacco Epidemic was launched at a news conference by Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on February 7th. Bloomberg Philanthropies helped fund the report.

Download the report: http://www.who.int/tobacco/mpower/en/index.html

WHO Press Release: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2008/pr04/en/index.html