Successes and new emerging challenges in tobacco control: addressing the vector.

INTRODUCTION There have been momentous events in tobacco control since the first edition of Tobacco Control was launched in 1992. These include increased global awareness of the harmfulness of tobacco and the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). The WHO FCTC represents the most momentous milestone; it was the first treaty negotiated under the auspices of the WHO and entered into force in 2005. It is one of the most rapidly embraced UN treaties and represents a paradigm shift in developing a regulatory strategy to address addictive substances. In contrast to previous drug control treaties, the WHO FCTC asserted the importance of demand reduction strategies as well as supply issues and thus established a framework for an integrated multisectoral response to a grave public health issue. Other major achievements include strengthening of the international nongovernmental movement against tobacco, for example, continuing and expanded world conferences on tobacco or health; the establishment of the International Network of Women Against Tobacco, inaugurated about the same time as the launch of the journal; the Framework Convention Alliance formed in 1999; international web-based networks on tobacco. There has been a significant increase in research on the effects of tobacco and secondhand smoke, the economic costs of tobacco and the behaviour of the tobacco companies; financial contributions of major international donors have increased the levels of funding for tobacco control efforts in lowand middle-income countries. Other key developments include the series of WHO Reports on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, which provides an unprecedented level of detail and roadmaps for effective solutions; reduction in smoking prevalence rates in many parts of the world; and the UN summit on Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) in 2011, in which the need to address tobacco use prevalence was highlighted as a cornerstone of NCD interventions. That said, the past 20 years have also brought an increasing resistance to tobacco control measures and emerging threats to public health by the tobacco industry, a phenomenon requiring a worldwide coordinated response in order to sufficiently and effectively curb the global tobacco epidemic.