Worldwide news and comment

On 26 July the latest WHO Global Tobacco Report was launched in Brazil. While it showed progress in expanding the number of people globally who are covered by at least one MPOWER measure, it starkly highlighted how much remains to ensure that the right of all people to good health is fulfilled. As implementation of Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) measures progresses, the tobacco industry—like any aggressive vector—continually mutates, finding new forms and strategies to attempt to convince politicians and the general public it has changed. Among its key strategies are infiltrating and subverting agendas for health and development, as well as co-opting allies (whether wilfully ignorant, or simply willing to take blood money) to sing from its song sheet. In this issue, we look at recent events which highlight manoeuvres to impede progress to address the human-caused, greed-driven disaster that is the tobacco epidemic...