The actions necessary to prevent them are known and cost effective. They require minimal investments. But government action is necessary, and inter-governmental agreement is the key to progress. Countries who have put in place these measures have been able to reduce the number of tobacco users. But over the past fifteen years, we have seen that modern technology, has limited the effectiveness of national action.
Tobacco advertising is beamed into every country via satellite and cable.
Developing countries are the subject of massive marketing campaigns by international tobacco companies. In the slipstream of increasing global trade, new markets are opened to international tobacco companies which see these emerging markets as their main opportunity to compensate for stagnant or dwindling markets in many industrialized countries. When challenged, tobacco companies choose to divert attention from the dramatic public health consequences of tobacco use. They have denied the dangers of their products. They have systematically discredited individuals, institutions and processes that genuinely seek to improve people's well being through the control of tobacco.