While European countries have made substantial progress in implementing some tobacco control measures – such as advertising bans and prioritising smoke-free policies – the third Series paper shows that European tobacco control nonetheless falls short in a  number of areas, and implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) remains patchy, at best, in most European countries.

Authors John Britton and Ilze Bogdanovica of the University of Nottingham, UK, point out that many European countries have poor provision of services for smokers trying to quit, and where these services are provided, they are poorly taken up – for example, the UK is described as a “world leader” in providing evidence-based smoking cessation services, yet these services are estimated to be used by fewer than 10% of smokers each year.

With an estimated 120 million smokers in Europe (28% of the total population), and 650 000 entirely preventable deaths from smoking every year, much more needs to be done to address the smoking epidemic in Europe.

The authors highlight a number of areas of opportunity for further improvement, including expanding the use of mass-media campaigns – proven to be highly effective ways of promoting smoking cessation to a wide population, yet still largely under-used across Europe; introducing standardised packaging across Europe; reducing the affordability of cigarettes through minimum pricing and pack sizes;  realising the potential of the new generation of nicotine-containing products,  such as electronic cigarettes, to promote cessation and harm reduction among the millions of smokers who are not ready or able to quit;  and investing in new research into tobacco addiction, treatment, and prevention to a degree that is more proportionate to the magnitude of the problems that smoking causes.

According to the authors, “Sustained failure to initiate and support smokers to stop smoking results in a massive toll of avoidable death and disability…The sustained failure of so many governments to introduce simple policies to prevent smoking in so many European countries, to the detriment of the health and wellbeing of millions of people represents a massive failure of political, and medical, leadership. The failure also bodes badly for the likelihood of success in addressing other commercially driven disease epidemics.”

Source: The Lancet