The emergence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) as the leading cause of global death and disease became evident towards the end of the 1990s. Awareness of this development led in 2000 to the adoption of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Strategy on Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases and subsequent publicity.
Well before this, governments, health authorities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) had developed a range of actions in many countries and internationally to combat smoking. There was overwhelming evidence on the devastating and growing impacts of tobacco use on public health. The WHO has long had a commitment to tobacco control: in 1970, the World Health Assembly called on governments to take action to reduce smoking,