Campaigners push to hitch tobacco control onto sustainable development agenda

By James Crisp | EURACTIV.com

 31-05-2017

Anti-tobacco campaigners from across Europe today (31 May) called on their national governments to use the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals to drive forward tobacco control legislation.

Can the SDGs cure the tobacco epidemic?
[Jan Michael Dimayuga/Flickr]

This article is part of our special report World No Tobacco Day.

Although the European Union’s Tobacco Products Directive which limits the sale and merchandising of cigarettes is being implemented across the bloc, harnessing the SDGs could being stricter legislation in the future, they said in Brussels.

The SDGs are sets of targets and indicators that UN members have committed to use to shape their policy over the next 15 years.  There are 17 in total and aim to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity, health and well-being for all.

EU Health Commissioner Vytennis Andrukatis called for the creation of a “tobacco free world”.

The former doctor used a video message to throw his weight behind the push to get national governments inside and outside the EU to implement the tobacco control framework in the SDGs.

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