WHO: World no tobacco day focuses on women

World No Tobacco Day is today, May 31st. This year is focusing on women. The goal is to draw attention to the fact that women are unfairly targeted and marketed to by the tobacco industry. In some countries women are the primary focus of advertising as the racketeers at Big Tobacco want to see more women smoking. While the world has nearly 1 billion smokers, only 20% of them are women. No one knows this more than the industry. The shift towards specifically marketing products to women and girls is all for the sake of profits!

The tobacco industry capitalizes of women's sense of independence and financial vitality. Especially in nations where the new sense of independence has been found, the tobacco industry is trying to tie that freedom to smoking and tobacco use.

The hope for World No Tobacco Day  is to also encourage the passed of the Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FCTC). This document FCTC is  the first WHO treaty of its kind. It was negotiated to prevent and control tobacco use all across the globe. The US has failed to act on this treaty.

Here is what we can do in Wisconsin to protect women and girls from the dangerous marketing of tobacco:

Call on our policy-makers!

Ask them to:

• Implement a comprehensive ban on all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, as called for in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
• Implement a comprehensive ban on tobacco smoke in all public places and workplaces, likewise called for in the WHO Framework Convention.
• Heed the call in the preamble of the WHO Framework Convention for "gender-specific tobacco control strategies" and the "full participation of women at all levels of [tobacco control] policy-making and implementation [of tobacco control measures]".
• Request assistance from WHO to implement the demand-reduction provisions of the WHO Framework Convention through the MPOWER package of tobacco control measures.
• Ensure that government agencies and other stakeholders work together to take into account the different needs of men and women.
• Ensure that tobacco control strategies take into account the special problems of women who chew tobacco.