Message from the Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean  

Ladies and Gentlemen,

World No Tobacco Day 2004 highlights how tobacco consumption impoverishes individuals, households and countries, diverting resources away from basic necessities and causing disease and premature death. Tobacco is bad economics all around; it has very high opportunity costs, particularly for the poor, and is inextricably linked with poverty.

Money spent on tobacco is money not spent on basic necessities such as food, clothing, shelter, education and health care. In low-income households, this may mean the difference between an adequate diet and malnutrition, and between education and illiteracy. In some countries of the Region, over 10% of scarce resources in low-income households are spent on cigarettes or other tobacco products; in others, the average amount spent by poor households on tobacco is virtually the same as the amount spent on education.  

Tobacco further contributes to the poverty of individuals and families because tobacco users are at much higher risk of falling ill and dying prematurely of cancers, heart attacks, respiratory diseases or other tobacco-related diseases, thus depriving families of much-needed income and imposing additional health care costs. If current trends persist, about 650 million people alive today will eventually be killed by tobacco, half of them in productive middle age. 

At country level, enormous economic losses result from tobacco consumption and cultivation. Tobacco-related diseases result in lost productivity and high health care costs. In Egypt alone, the direct annual cost of treating diseases caused by tobacco use is US$ 545.5 million. Countries that are net importers of tobacco leaf and tobacco products lose millions of dollars a year in foreign exchange. Tobacco cultivation and curing degrade the natural environment and can cause serious damage to human health. Moreover, the use of child labour in tobacco fields, which is common practice in many tobacco-producing countries, results in increased health risks and loss of vital educational opportunities. 

Clearly, tobacco is a major impediment to development. If current smoking patterns continue, tobacco use will kill 10 million people each year by 2025, and 75% of these deaths will occur in developing and transitional economies.  

Furthermore, despite the scope of the burden facing developing countries, tobacco consumption continues to be promoted in the form of shisha, particularly in restaurants and coffee shops, and increasingly attracts women and youth, who until recently had not been exposed to the deadly effects of the tobacco epidemic. Shisha is also associated with the spread of certain contagious diseases such as tuberculosis and hepatitis. 

The adoption of WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in May 2003 was a critical step for tobacco control. In adopting and signing the Convention, WHO’s Member States have expressed their firm commitment to tackle the public health challenges posed by tobacco and have resolved to address such key issues as price and tax measures, tobacco and poverty-related issues, cross‑border smuggling, tobacco advertising and promotion, and people’s right to clean indoor air.

Unfortunately, the Eastern Mediterranean Region is lagging in its commitment to the Convention. So far, the Region has only nine signatures—fewer than any other WHO region—and no ratifications. Ratifying and supporting the Convention’s entry into force is crucial, as this treaty will be a powerful tool in curbing the devastating effects of the tobacco epidemic.