Panama To Host Anti-tobacco Talks As Industry Courts New, Younger Smokers

Panama City, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd Feb, 2024) A global anti-tobacco meeting opens in Panama on Monday to halt the harmful consequences of smoking, as tobacco companies endeavor to hook more users -- including children -- with addictive products.

Delegates from more than 180 countries will gather in Panama City for the biennial meeting, which will focus on tobacco advertising and sponsorship -- as well as new tobacco products, such as trendy electronic cigarettes.

The number of smokers around the world is steadily dropping, but the World Health Organization warned earlier this month that Big Tobacco was working hard to attract young people.

Tobacco use is estimated to kill more than eight million people each year, including an estimated 1.3 million non-smokers who are exposed to second-hand smoke, WHO statistics show.

The UN agency warned that while smoking rates are declining, it would take decades for the number of tobacco-related deaths to follow suit.

"Smoking causes a lot of damage and receives relatively little attention," because most of its impact is in the long term, whereas governments focus on the "day-to-day," Chile's former deputy health minister Ricardo Fabrega told AFP.

"Additionally, there is an industry with experts in inducing consumption at very early ages," added Fabrega, also the dean of the Santo Tomas University in Santiago.

The tenth meeting (COP10) of parties to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) had been due in November 2023, but was postponed due to mass protests in Panama demanding the closure of a copper mine.

The tobacco control treaty came into force two decades ago.