WHF launches new Roadmap for reducing premature CVD deaths through tobacco reduction
What: Leading experts in tobacco control and cardiovascular disease launch the Tobacco Roadmap at the World Congress of Tobacco or Health 2015 (WCTOH)
When: Thursday 19th March
Time: 12.30 – 13.55 (Gulf Standard Time)
Where: WCTOH, Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Centre, Abu Dhabi, UAE
World Heart Federation launches Roadmap for reducing premature cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths through tobacco reduction
Tobacco use, which is completely avoidable, kills 6 million people a year. As one of the leading risk factors for cardiovascular disease, it accounts for almost 10 per cent of cardiovascular mortality. In conjunction with leading cardiovascular and health organisations, the World Heart Federation is launching the CVD Roadmap on tobacco control at the World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Abu Dhabi.
The CVD roadmap on tobacco control, which accompanies similar tools on raised blood pressure and the treatment of heart disease and stroke, points to the policies that protect people from death and disability from cardiovascular disease. “Everyone benefits from tobacco control law, though it can be argued that people with cardiovascular disease are the ones who benefit most from its life-saving protection. It is one of the surest, simplest and cheapest ways to protect people with heart disease from having heart attacks and stroke. Anyone who cares about heart health…his own, or that of others… has a very strong stake in tobacco control”, said Johanna Ralston, Chief Executive Officer of the World Heart Federation.
The CVD Roadmap on tobacco control is based on the global tobacco control treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Through the treaty, most of the countries in the world are already legally bound to enact and enforce a package of policies that protect people from death and illness caused by tobacco. These include raising tobacco taxes, enforcing bans on smoking in public and tobacco advertising, warning the public of the dangers of tobacco, and providing support for quitting.
The CVD roadmap on tobacco is designed to mobilize all those who have a stake in improving heart health or reducing the economic losses caused by cardiovascular disease: governments, businesses, health workers and advocates and all those affected by heart disease. It indicates clear routes of action for reducing death and disability from heart disease caused by tobacco, and calls upon different groups to coordinate action to accelerate implementation of tobacco control policy.
“If governments do not speed up their work to meet these commitments, we cannot possibly control the growing epidemic of cardiovascular disease. At the current rate, by 2030, tobacco will claim 8 million lives a year,” explains Johanna Ralston. “We must act now to stop it.”
Available for interview:
· Johanna Ralston, Chief Executive Officer, World Heart Federation
· Professor K. Srinath Reddy, Immediate Past President of the World Heart Federation & President of the Public Health Foundation of India
· Professor David Wood, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, Imperial College London
*Additional speakers available on request*
For more information and interviews, contact:
Rosie Ireland +44 7590 228701 / [email protected]
