Reducing tobacco consumption
…key to halting non-communicable diseases With tobacco use said to be one of the biggest contributors to non-communicable disease epidemic (such as heart disease, stroke, cancers, etc) and estimated to kill eight million people annually by 2030, reports by the World Health Organisation (WHO) revealed that more than one billion people in 19 countries are now covered by laws requiring large, graphic health warnings on packages of tobacco. This development, which was part of WHO’s third periodic report on global tobacco epidemic, further revealed that Mexico, Peru and the United States of America (USA) have become the latest countries to require the large, graphic warnings, which is proven to motivate people to stop using tobacco and reduce the appeal for people not yet addicted to it. Even as graphic health warning, that is among the six demand-reduction measures recommended by the global health body to inform people on the dangers of tobacco use, health expert...