The number of tobacco users globally has dropped from 1.32 billion in 2015 to 1.3 billion, and is expected to decline to 1.27 billion smokers by 2025, according to the fourth World Health Organization (WHO) global tobacco trends report. The report, released on Tuesday, revealed that 60 countries are now on track to achieving the […] Continue reading ->
While it pales in comparison to tobacco industry marketing, two new capital investment funds worth some $75 million to support low- and middle-income countries in their fight against tobacco are being created by signatories to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and a related Protocol on illegal sales. Together, the funds would yield an estimated […] Continue reading ->
Greening cities, investing in urban bike lanes rather than new roads, and making plant-based foods cheaper and easier to access than ultra-processed foods. This is a doctor’s prescription for a healthier planet. As climate negotiators at Glasgow’s COP26 conference remain locked in debate over the big-picture ambition of targets for global CO2 emissions reductions, and […] Continue reading ->
The tobacco industry used the COVID-19 pandemic to ingratiate itself with governments around the world and win concessions for their harmful products, according to a review of 80 countries analyzed in the Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2021, which was released on Tuesday. It wasn’t simply economically vulnerable countries that were susceptible to industry influence. […] Continue reading ->
October is Liver Cancer Awareness month, and Europe has a liver cancer problem. Over the past two decades, there has been a 70% increase in liver cancer-related mortality in the region. In 2020, 87,000 Europeans were diagnosed with liver cancer while 78,000 died from the disease in the same year. Late diagnosis is a serious […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization would allocate some US$ 15 million annually to ramp up training programmes for WHO staff and consultants in the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA), beginning with ten countries that have the “highest risk” profile, according to a draft plan under discussion with member states. The proposed “Management Response Plan”, […] Continue reading ->
The most systematic study to date of the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on mental health suggests that it has caused an additional 53 million cases of major depressive disorder, 76 million cases of anxiety across 204 countries in 2020 alone, according to a new Lancet study. The study, published just ahead of World Mental Health Day, […] Continue reading ->
Long months of pandemic lockdown have only exacerbated the harms due to alcohol experienced by billions of people worldwide. Now, WHO is in the process of developing a new alcohol action plan, in an effort to re-energize a stagnant process and overcome a “lost decade” of little progress on alcohol policies. Can it make a […] Continue reading ->
A WHO independent commission concluded that 83 emergency responders to DR-Congo’s 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak, including some 21 WHO employees and consultants, had likely abused dozens of Congolese women, obtaining sex in exchange for promises of jobs – also raping nine women outright. But the panel’s findings, which validate reports first published in September 2020 in […] Continue reading ->
In a milestone moment, WHO today issued new guidelines for a range of health-harmful air pollutants – recommending a reduction by one-half in safe levels of fine particulates (PM2.5) – considered to be the benchmark indicator of health impacts that lead to some 7 million deaths a year. The new standards put most cities of […] Continue reading ->