Edinburgh, 31 May 2012: With the theme “Stop Tobacco Industry Interference”, World No Tobacco Day 2012 highlights the critical need to meet head on the aggressive strategies and tactics used by the tobacco industry to dilute, delay and prevent tobacco control policies and measures.

The theme of World No Tobacco Day is "Stop Tobacco Industry Interference" in tobacco control legislation and policy. The Union has developed a toolkit on how to prevent such interference and fulfill the goals of the FCTC's Article 5.3. To download the toolkit, click here.

At the World Health Assembly on 21–26 May, there is a strong likelihood that no progress will be made on agreeing global targets to tackle non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The NCD Alliance, including The Union, says this will risk a crippling loss of the momentum created by last year's historic UN Summit on NCDs.

Using The Union’s ABC approach (A = ask, B = brief advice, C = cessation support) Bangladesh’s BRAC is supporting TB patients at 17 peri-urban DOTS centres in their efforts to quit smoking. In the first cohort to go through the programme, 80% had quit by the end of their TB treatment.