In honor of the Great American Smokeout, I am linking to a Lancet article from 1 November 2025: Tobacco treaty wrestles with new nicotine products.“When the 11th Conference of the Parties (COP11) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) convenes from Nov 17–22, 2025, in Geneva, Switzerland, delegates from 182 countries and the EU will mark the 20th anniversary of the entry into force of WHO’s first global health treaty.
“The FCTC is credited with driving down tobacco use worldwide, and the COP is intended to oversee its implementation, but the emergence of new nicotine products has renewed disagreements over how best to end the epidemic of tobacco use.
The WHO Global Report on Trends in Tobacco Use 2000–2024 and Projections 2025–2030 shows that the proportion of adults using tobacco decreased from 33% in 2000 to 19.5% in 2024. Although the total number of 1.2 billion adult tobacco users is 120 million fewer than in 2010, this decrease is still short of the 30% reduction target set for 2025 …
“According to WHO, more than 100 million people now vape, including 86 million adults and at least 15 million adolescents aged 13–15 years, with children nine times more likely than adults to vape. ‘E-cigarettes are fuelling a new wave of nicotine addiction… They are marketed as harm reduction but, in reality, are hooking kids on nicotine earlier and risk undermining decades of progress.’
“Tobacco use has fallen to historic lows, yet one in five adults still consumes tobacco or nicotine products.”
Why is the Great American Smokeout important?
Although cigarette smoking rates have been declining for decades in the United States, cigarette smoking remains the most preventable cause of serious illness and death.
- Smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke cause more than 480,000 deaths in the US every year.
- Smoking cigarettes increases the risk of at least 12 different cancers.
- In the US, cigarette smoking causes about 3 of every 10 cancer deaths.
I’ve mentioned this before, but there is definitely a demographic component. When you see enough people at bus stops pick up cigarettes to smoke, you believe it. “Some groups of people smoke more heavily or at higher rates.” These populations face healthcare barriers and inequities in multiple areas.
My paternal grandmother, Agatha Helen (Walker) Green, died from cigarette smoking at the age of 62. Though he eventually quit after many years of smoking, I expect that smoking shortened my father’s life, as he died at 73.
Here is a commercial with Yogi Bear and Boo Boo urging folks not to smoke.