Tobacco Overview

Tobacco use can be prevented.

Multiple cost-effective tobacco-control interventions are successful in curbing tobacco consumption and preventing the onset of tobacco use in nonsmokers. These include smoke-free laws, anti-smoking awareness campaigns, comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising and promotion, graphic warning labels, and tax increases on cigarettes that can yield funds to be put back into health care programs.

However, death, disease, and poverty due to tobacco use stubbornly persist.

• More than 1 in 4 adults—1 billion people—smoke today.
• Tobacco use is a risk factor for six of the world's eight leading causes of death.
• Tobacco-caused diseases may be responsible for up to 10 million deaths every year by 2030—80 percent of them in developing countries.
• Tobacco use is associated with lung disease, cancer, heart disease, low birthweight, stillbirths, increased mortality in tuberculosis patients, and many other problems.
• Smoking kills half of smokers unless they quit, and many more are disabled.
• Smokers put families at risk of sliding into poverty due to poor health and premature death.

Our goal is to significantly reduce tobacco-caused disease, death, and poverty in the developing world.

Next: Our Approach

We work with our primary partner, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, to support the following strategies to reduce the global tobacco epidemic:

Prevent tobacco use in high-burden countries

Given the high burden that tobacco use places on the health of people in India and China, we are focused on intensive efforts to substantially reduce tobacco consumption there. These include supporting mayors to develop smoke-free cities, taxation policies, and public awareness campaigns.

Prevent tobacco use in Africa

If strong tobacco-control measures are not implemented now, the number of tobacco users in Africa will increase dramatically. We’re focusing on efforts that can help prevent the onset of the tobacco epidemic in Africa. These include the development of policies and awareness campaigns to prevent the tobacco industry from becoming firmly established in Africa and building capacity to lead and implement tobacco control programs.

Strengthen the evidence base for tobacco control

Without accurate information on the size and nature of challenges and successes in tobacco, governments in developing countries are understandably reluctant to spend more on tobacco control and are poorly prepared to draft effective policies. We’re supporting a number of efforts to help policymakers by providing an evidence base for increased tobacco control.