Lancet Commentary Reflects on 20th Anniversary of the WHO FCTC

26 February 2025, at 11:58.

Tobacco Control Research Group director Anna Gilmore has contributed to a commentary published in The Lancet to mark the 20^th anniversary of the WHO FCTC’s entry into force.

The article lauds the WHO FCTC’s main achievement: a decline in in the prevalence of tobacco use in every country income group and globally, from 29.3% (2005) to 20.9% (2022).

However, it warns that this progress is now under threat, with rates of decline in global cigarette sales and tobacco use prevalence having stalled.

The commentary also highlights two new approaches being used by the tobacco industry: the filibustering of decisions made at the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the WHO FCTC, and claiming a public health role through commitment to ‘harm reduction’.

The authors emphasise that tobacco industry interference remains the single most serious threat to tobacco control, and urge Parties to the treaty to go further:

At the 20-year mark, the FCTC is therefore at an unavoidable inflection point. If a generation of young people is to be protected and progress restored, parties to the FCTC must step up their ambition.

Read the paper:

20th anniversary of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control coming into force: time for a step change in ambition, A.B. Gilmore, C. Callard, D. Sy, B.A. Llorente, U. Bhojani, C.O. Egbe, S.A Bialous, The Lancet, Published Online First: [25 February 2025], doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(25)00336-8