A new study – funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies and appearing in the journal Tobacco Control — found that worldwide smoking rates could be reduced by 44 percent in only 20 years if countries immediately adopt the proven tobacco-control policies developed by the World Health Organization and implemented via the Bloomberg Initiative on Global Tobacco Control. These policies, collectively known as the MPOWER package, include higher tobacco taxes, programs to help smokers quit, advertising bans and anti-tobacco education programs.

Kelly Henning, M.D., director of Public Health Programs at Bloomberg Philanthropies said, “We know when MPOWER measures are implemented, the results are clear: fewer people use tobacco and they live longer, healthier lives. This research clearly shows just how effective these policies can be if they are broadly adopted. We are proud of the progress to date of the Bloomberg Initiative, but there is still much work to be done.”

According to the study, the global adult smoking rate was 23.7 percent in 2010. The author estimate that if no additional policies are set in place, global prevalence will continue to grow to 872 million smokers by 2030. However, if countries immediately implement MPOWER, the global smoking prevalence would fall to 523 million smokers by 2030.  

Matthew Myers, President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said in a statement that “No other public health measures have the potential to save so many lives in such a short time. These findings are a powerful reminder to governments that we know how to dramatically reduce tobacco use, the world’s number one cause of preventable death.”

Given that half of lifetime tobacco users are killed by tobacco-related sickness, these policies have the potential to save tens of millions of lives.

Read the full study [subscription required]

Mayor Bloomberg presents Mr. Daniel Tan, Health Justice, Philippines with an MPOWER award for the law group’s efforts to monitor tobacco industry influence.

Watch this video to learn more about the Health Justice’s work to monitor the influence of the tobacco industry in the Philippines.

Mayor Bloomberg announced the winners of this year’s global tobacco control awards. Six organizations from around the world were recognized with the MPOWER award for their success in fighting the global tobacco epidemic in their native countries of Colombia, Uruguay, Turkey, Philippines and Egypt.

Many argue that raising tobacco taxes is perhaps the most effective tool in the tobacco control arsenal. Numerous case studies in cities and states have shown that higher prices reduce the number of smokers and induce those who continue to smoke to consume fewer cigarettes per day.

It is estimated that for each 10% increase in retail prices, consumption is reduced by about 4% in high-income countries and by about 8% in low-and-middle-income countries.

Higher taxes are especially effective at curbing youth smoking. Young people and low-income smokers are two to three times more likely to quit or smoke less than other smokers after prices increases.

Bloomberg Philanthropies is funding dual tracks of work in India – where 1,500 people die every day from tobacco-related diseases - to leverage the power of higher tobacco taxes. While simultaneously advocating for national tax increases, Bloomberg grantees and partner organizations are effectively lobbying state ministers of finance to increase state taxes on tobacco products.  Success has been swift and impactful with four Indian states raising tobacco taxes in the last 30 days alone. 

Simply warning people about the dangers of tobacco can be another highly effective way to curb usage.

As our partners at The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids highlight, research shows large, graphic warning labels can be a motivator for smokers to quit, discourage nonsmokers from picking up the deadly habit and keep ex-smokers from restarting. In the past five years, Bloomberg Philanthropies has helped fund efforts to make warning labels more graphic and effective, especially in the countries where they’re needed most.

In India, a Bloomberg-funded Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) helped pave the way for new graphic warning labels that started appearing in December 2011. The Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare approved two sets of four images—one set for smoked tobacco products and another set for smokeless products.

According to the Ministry, the decision to require harsher images for chewing tobacco was a direct result of the GATS findings that showed the use of smokeless tobacco is higher among both men and women than smoked tobacco products.

Effective warnings aren’t only found on tobacco products, but can come in the form of smart ad campaigns. Vietnam saw success two years ago with a campaign modeled from New York City’s highly successful “Cigarettes are Eating You Alive” advertisements. With Bloomberg Philanthropies’ funding, the World Lung Foundation supported Vietnam’s Ministry of Health and local stakeholders on the technical aspects of the campaign, including message testing, production, media purchasing, evaluation and public relations.

Posters were distributed to hospitals across Vietnam and to partners working in health, education and transportation facilities.

A post-campaign evaluation found that 70% of respondents in Vietnam recalled seeing the campaign, and more than three-quarters of smokers who had seen it said it made them more likely to quit and think twice before exposing others to their smoke.

Back in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control recently launched a groundbreaking new campaign that will feature tips from former smokers who are suffering the painful consequences of the habit. The initiative stems from the overwhelming evidence that warning labels work. 

Enforcing comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorships are highly effective ways to reduce smoking among people of all education and income levels. Research conducted by  Henry Saffer, Ph.D. and Frank Chaloupka, Ph.D. and reported in the Journal of Health Economics shows partial advertising bans have little or no effect on smoking prevalence.

These types of bans can be achieved through government intervention, or as in one recent case in Indonesia, through grassroots advocacy.  

With the help of Bloomberg Philanthropies funding, partners led an international campaign urging U.S. artist Kelly Clarkson to reject tobacco sponsorship of her April 2010 concert in Jakarta.

Bloomberg partners and grantees first sent letters to Clarkson asking her to take action. They then launched a social media campaign to turn up the heat through Facebook and Twitter, generating significant comments and more than 1,900 emails to the singer’s management company urging her to drop the cigarette company sponsorship.

Their persistence paid off when a week before the concert, Clarkson’s concert promoter in Indonesia announced that the tobacco company sponsorship and promotions would be removed from the concert.

Each of the six components of MPOWER incorporates a critical tool for reversing the global tobacco epidemic. Smoke-free environments provide critical protection to workers and patrons from deadly secondhand smoke. Turkey, Brazil and Argentina have recently achieved such smoke-free successes.

Turkey’s national smoke-free law was amended in 2008 to achieve a complete ban on smoking in public places. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and top health officials led the charge while Bloomberg Philanthropies funded, through its partner organizations, multiple components of advocacy work that helped to ensure the passage and implementation of Turkey’s law.

One year after the law went into effect in all public places, poll findings showed that nearly 92% of citizens supported it, and compliance studies indicated that eight out of ten places visited were in compliance.

Brazil recently enacted 100% smoke-free legislation and strengthened existing tobacco control laws on warning labels and tobacco advertising. Bloomberg Initiative grantee ACT Brazil tirelessly fought off attacks from the tobacco industry by organizing a lobbying day in Brasilia involving advocates from each state in the country and executing a print and social media campaign centered on limiting the industry’s unfettered freedom. President Dilma Rousseff signed the law on December 15, 2011. 

Argentina also joined the smoke-free club in June 2011 when President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner signed a tough new tobacco control law that mandates 100% smoke-free indoor workplaces and public places and imposes restrictions on tobacco advertising and promotions. Bloomberg grantee FIC Argentina and ALIAR, the national coalition on tobacco control alliance, advocated for the legislation through several sessions of Congress.

One particularly influential tool was a shadow report that revealed women in Argentina have been heavily targeted by the tobacco industry and, as a result, have some of the highest smoking rates among women in the world. The new law comes after decades of heavy tobacco industry lobbying against tobacco control in Argentina.

Philanthropist and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will present the 2012 Bloomberg Awards for Global Tobacco Control this Thursday at the 15th World Conference on Tobacco or Health here in Singapore. The awards recognize the work of highly successful tobacco control efforts around the globe.

Since 2007, The Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, has worked to implement the World Health Organization’s MPOWER package of six tobacco control strategies proven to reduce tobacco use. Funded partner organizations work with governments and non-governmental civil organizations at the national and local levels to advance implementation efforts. This includes rigorous data collection and monitoring; drafting of tobacco control laws and legal consultation; technical, management, and leadership training; paid and earned media campaigns; country-based tobacco tax consultations; and targeted advocacy.

MPOWER’s initiatives are making an impact in low- and middle -income countries where 80% of tobacco-related deaths occur. MPOWER stands for: 

*       Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies

*       Protect people from tobacco smoke

*       Offer help to quit tobacco use

*       Warn people about the dangers of tobacco

*       Enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship

*       Raise taxes on tobacco

In the first five years, the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use has supported governments and non-governmental organizations by fostering the implementation of these policies and the impact has been dramatic.

Today, more than 1.2 billion people are protected by newly-passed tobacco control policies in 30 countries, resulting in at least 3.7 million lives saved from tobacco-related causes. Eighteen countries with almost 750 million citizens have passed 100% smoke-free laws, including Brazil, Turkey and Pakistan. Several of the world’s largest cities have also gone smoke-free, including Mexico City, Jakarta, and China’s Harbin City, which passed that nation’s strongest tobacco control law to date.

Thursday’s awards ceremony will add a new group of innovative success stories from the around the world to the list of tobacco control heroes.

At Bloomberg Philanthropies, we are working to create healthier, safer lives for the greatest number of people. Reversing the global tobacco epidemic is a key component of this work. If left unchecked, tobacco use will kill a billion people this century, with more than 80% of those deaths occurring in the world’s developing nations.

Solutions do exist. In 2007, we partnered with the World Health Organization to package and promote six proven policies to reduce tobacco use — including protecting people from tobacco smoke, offering help to quit, raising awareness about the dangers of tobacco through warning labels and public education campaigns, enforcing tobacco advertising bans, and raising the price of tobacco products. The science is clear: employ these approaches and smoking rates fall. That’s why, through strategic partnerships and a $375 million investment, we’re helping governments implement these interventions in low- and middle-income countries that are home to the majority of the world’s smokers.

In just a few short years, as this report will show, this work and the work of our partners have already had a huge impact. Almost four billion people worldwide are protected by at least one of the six proven tobacco control policies, and momentum continues to build. In the first half of 2011 alone, Argentina became the eighth nation in Latin America to go smoke-free, and Harbin City in China passed its nation’s strongest tobacco control legislation to date. That said, the battle is far from over, and we look forward to continued success around the world.