A new article published by the medical journal The Lancet titled, “Priority actions for the non-communicable disease crisis,” highlights priority actions to reduce the global NCD crisis and identifies tobacco control as the most urgent and immediate priority intervention.

Article Highlights:

• NCDs cause two out of three deaths each year, 80% of which occur in low- and middle-income countries.
• The burden of NCDs is increasing in low- and middle-income countries.  NCDs contribute to ongoing poverty and are a major barrier to development.
• Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the world and alone accounts for one in six of all deaths resulting from NCDs.
• Tobacco use is a risk factor for all major categories of non-communicable diseases, including heart disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, and diabetes.
• The priority for immediate action on NCDs is full implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to reduce tobacco use.

Action:

• Share this article with representatives from your country who will be attending events in advance of the UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs in September, 2011 and with media in your country.

o    Highlight tobacco as the leading cause of preventable NCDs and the critical importance of accelerated implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control as a key outcome of the UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs.

Additional Resources:

• To access a briefing paper on NCDs and tobacco prepared by the NCD Alliance FCTC working group [English], visit: http://www.fctc.org/images/stories/BriefingPaper_summary_no%20refs.pdf
• To access a fact sheet on the NCDS and tobacco, visit [English]: http://www.tobaccofreecenter.org/files/pdfs/en/Tobacco_and_NCD_en.pdf
• To access fact sheets about the global burden of tobacco [English], visit:  http://www.tobaccofreecenter.org/files/pdfs/en/global_tobacco_epidemic_en.pdf.

Full citation: Beaglehole R, Bonita R, Horton R, Adams C, Alleyne G, Asaria P, et al. Priority actions for the non-communicable disease crisis. Lancet. 2011 April 5.

A link to the article [English only] can be found at: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2811%2960393-0/fulltext#article_upsell

The Lancet is one of the world’s oldest and most respected general medical journals. For more than 180 years, it has served as an independent and authoritative voice in global medicine.

If you have questions about the materials or how you can use them in your advocacy efforts, please email research@tobaccofreekids.org.