Tobacco taxes can save the next generation in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

Background: Tobacco use remains a significant challenge to public health in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), particularly among adolescents, despite various control measures implemented by countries.

Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of tobacco taxation policies in reducing consumption among adolescents in the EMR and identify optimal tax structures and enforcement strategies.

Methods: We analysed data from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey and the Global Tobacco Control Report up to 2023 to assess prevalence of tobacco use among adolescents, access to tobacco products, and types of taxes imposed by EMR countries.

Impact of taxation on tobacco products prices in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.

Background: In 2016, the 6 Gulf Cooperation Council countries agreed to implement a harmonized excise tax on tobacco products, at a rate of 100% of the pre-tax price.

Aim: To assess the implementation of tobacco taxation in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates and its impact on consumer prices, affordability and substitution possibilities.

Methods: This study conducted simple descriptive analysis of open-source secondary data reported to WHO by Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates on cigarette excise taxes, price levels, price dispersion, and affordability.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on service delivery for noncommunicable diseases in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the delivery of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) services globally as health systems are overwhelmed by the response to the pandemic.

Aims: The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean conducted an assessment to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on NCD-related services, programmes, funding and consideration of NCDs in COVID-19 response.

Methods: Data were collected from countries of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) in mid-2020 through a web-based questionnaire on NCD services-related infrastructure, policies and plans, staffing, funding, NCD services disruptions and their causes, disruption mitigation strategies, data collection on comorbidity, surveillance, and suggestions for WHO technical guidance.

Tobacco is a threat to the environment and human health.

The 2022 World No-Tobacco Day campaign focuses on tobacco's threat to the environment. It aims to raise awareness on the environmental impact of tobacco throughout its lifecycle, demonstrating its destructive impact not only on human health, but also on the environment and the planet. It also aims to expose efforts of the tobacco industry to "greenwash" their reputation and products by increasingly portraying their activities as environmentally friendly.

Estimated and projected prevalence of tobacco smoking in males, Eastern Mediterranean Region, 2000-2025.

Background: Three global reports published by the World Health Organization (WHO) report trends in the prevalence of tobacco smoking from 2000 to 2025 based on data from national surveys.

Aims: The is study aimed to: (i) compare current and projected prevalence rates of tobacco smoking presented in these reports for males ≥ 15 years in countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region; and (ii) assess changes in the prevalence rates in the context of changes in tobacco monitoring and control policies in these countries.

Methods: Regional and country-level data on tobacco smoking were extracted from the trend reports.

Implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in Tunisia: Progress and challenges.

Introduction: The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) was the first health treaty that requires state parties to adopt and implement the MPOWER package. The aim of this study is to review the current status of tobacco control policies in Tunisia according to the WHO FCTC recommendations.

Methods: This paper is a critical narrative literature review in which information was obtained from peer-reviewed articles, official government documents, reports, decrees and grey literature in French, Arabic and English.

Smoking cessation services in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: highlights and findings from the WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2019.

The report aimed to review and assess the status of tobacco cessation services in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). Nearly 70% of people in the Region have legal access to nicotine-replacement therapy but for 77% of these people the costs of the treatment are not covered. Bupropion and Varenicline are legally available in 10 and 11 EMR countries respectively.

The status of tobacco control in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: progress in the implementation of the MPOWER measures.

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) MPOWER measures are a set of highly effective tobacco control measures drawn from the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), designed to help countries reduce the prevalence of tobacco use. The WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic is published biennially to monitor global implementation of these measures.

Aims: This review aimed to critically assess the status of MPOWER implementation in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

Smoking prevalence in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

Background: Three global reports issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) track and report on trends in the prevalence of tobacco smoking from 2000 to 2025 based on data from national surveys.

Aims: This review aimed to compare regional and country-level projections for current tobacco smoking as presented in the WHO trend reports. These changes were considered in the context of improved monitoring and tobacco control policies.

Full implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in the Eastern Mediterranean Region is the responsibility of all.

Although the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) came into force in 2005, the tobacco control challenge continues to escalate. Despite the fact that tobacco use is finally projected to decrease in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), as indicated in the WHO Global Report on Trends in the Prevalence of Tobacco Use, the tobacco epidemic is still far from over. The challenges facing the Region do not have a single source; the tobacco epidemic started as a multi-faceted problem and remains so today.

Lung health in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: the need to end designated smoking areas in public places (Editorial).

Tobacco use is a fatal habit that causes harm to almost all organs of the human body and kills up to half of its users. Studies have shown that tobacco contains a poisonous mix of more than 7000 chemicals that have major consequences, including heart attacks and strokes , and are considered major risk factors for many types of cancer (4) and the leading cause of lung cancer. Moreover, tobacco use dramatically affects the respiratory system, damaging its airways and alveoli, and leading to chronic obstructive lung diseases1 including emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

World No Tobacco Day 2018: towards a sustainable campaign involving the cardiovascular community (Editorial).

The movement to reduce tobacco use has been gathering pace in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), as governments aim at implementing legislation to encourage populations to turn away from tobacco consumption and avoid the associated health risks. Indeed, within the Region it was in 2007 that Egyptian cardiologist Prof. Hamdi El Sayed, former member of parliament and former head of the Medical Syndicate, successfully proposed legislation for the implementation of graphic health warnings on tobacco packets covering 50% of visible packaging.

Tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship in entertainment media: a phenomenon requiring stronger controls in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

Tobacco use and placement of tobacco products in television (TV) productions and movies is a way to promote tobacco use while avoiding tobacco advertising bans that exist in most countries. The fact that such productions are broadcast widely and viewed by millions, including children and young people, is of concern. This paper reviews the evidence on the use of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship (TAPS) in TV and films in the Eastern Mediterranean Region and the ways to combat it.

MPOWER, needs and challenges: trends in the implementation of the WHO FCTC in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

Background: WHO MPOWER aims to help countries prioritize tobacco control measures in line with the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Objectives: This paper assessed the progress and challenges in implementing the 6 priority policies of MPOWER in countries of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region since 2011.

Methods: A checklist was developed and scores assigned based on the MPOWER indicators (maximum score 37).

Moving away from the comfort zone of tobacco control policies to the highest level of implementation (Editorial).

The year 2015 marked the 10th anniversary of the entry into force of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Following this, in the same year, the 18th comprehensive national tobacco control law(s) was adopted in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). Member countries of the EMR have come a long way in tobacco control legislation since the entry into force of the WHO FCTC, with 19 of the 22 countries now party to it (except Morocco, Palestine and Somalia).

Prevalence of tobacco use among adults in Egypt, 2009.

Introduction: We assessed the differences in overall use of tobacco and in the use of various tobacco products, by sex and by frequency of use across various demographic groups.

Methods: We used data from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS), conducted in 2009 in Egypt. The data consist of answers to GATS by 20,924 respondents from a nationally representative, multistage probability sample of adults aged 15 years or older from all regions of Egypt.

Cross-country comparison of waterpipe use: nationally representative data from 13 low and middle-income countries from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS).

Objective: Evidence shows that smoking tobacco using a waterpipe is significantly associated with diseases. Despite this, waterpipe use seems to be increasing worldwide, though nationally representative data are not widely available. The Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) provides an opportunity to measure various indicators of waterpipe use from nationally representative surveys.

The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control as a tool for advancing health promotion: perspective from the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

The paper addresses the impact of the adoption and implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, and how successful the FCTC is as a tool for health promotion. The FCTC implementation has impacted areas such as surveillance systems for tobacco control, increasing political commitment, development of legislation and addressing new social norms in tobacco consumption. These developments help to overcome many challenges for better health promotion in the region.

Tobacco use among Palestine refugee students (UNRWA) aged 13-15.

Objective: The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has made tobacco use prevention a primary health issue. UNRWA provides education, health, relief and social services in five fields of operation: Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The purpose of this paper is to compare tobacco use among Palestine refugee students and students in the general population of the five fields of operation.

Prevalence of tobacco use among students aged 13-15 years in Health Ministers' Council/Gulf Cooperation Council Member States, 2001-2004.

Background: This article examines differences and similarities in adolescent tobacco use among Member States of the Health Ministers' Council for the Gulf Cooperation Council (HMC/GCC) using Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) data.

Methods: Nationally representative samples of students in grades associated with ages 13-15 in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Schools were selected proportional to enrollment size, classes were randomly selected within participating schools, and all students in selected classes were eligible to participate.

Global youth tobacco surveillance, 2000-2007.

Problem: Tobacco use is a major contributor to deaths from chronic diseases. The findings from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) suggest that the estimate of a doubling of deaths from smoking (from 5 million per year to approximately 10 million per year by 2020) might be an underestimate because of the increase in smoking among young girls compared with adult females, the high susceptibility of smoking among never smokers, high levels of exposure to secondhand smoke, and protobacco indirect advertising.

Reporting Period Covered: This report includes GYTS data collected during 2000-2007 from 140 World Health Organization (WHO) member states, six territories (American Samoa, British Virgin Islands, Guam, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, and the U.