14.09.2016
We won’t achieve sustainable development goals for NCDs or other targets without tobacco taxes

The Lancet Global Health Blog "WHO’s recent report on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) reveals a distressing gap in our ability to achieve our Sustainable Development Goals.

(...) One obvious and strong solution for reducing NCDs and meeting our SDGs lies in tobacco taxation. WHO reports that 87% of countries have established some kind of taxation on tobacco products. This is encouraging. However, we know that only a handful of countries have established government-imposed taxes on tobacco products that are straightforward and sufficiently high. The global reach of this solution falls far short of what is needed as most countries still have high levels of tobacco consumption, low rates of tobacco tax, and under-funded health systems and programmes." (by José LuisCastro, Chair of NCD Alliance) Photo: Janine Pusa/flickr