The ERS is urging European countries to adopt “tobacco endgame” policies to permanently reduce tobacco use and end the epidemic.
RT’s Three Key Takeaways:
- Endgame Strategies: The ERS supports policies aimed at reducing smoking prevalence to minimal levels and phasing out the commercial sale of tobacco products.
- Public Health Burden: Tobacco dependence causes an estimated 700,000 deaths across Europe each year and contributes to significant healthcare costs and productivity losses.
- Evidence-Based Policies: The statement recommends combining stronger tobacco regulation with measures to reduce product attractiveness and prevent nicotine addiction in youth.
The European Respiratory Society (ERS) has published a new statement calling for a “tobacco endgame” that would see European countries adopt policies aimed at permanently reducing tobacco use and ending the epidemic.
According to the statement, tobacco dependence remains one of the leading preventable causes of death and disability, causing an estimated 700,000 deaths across Europe each year and more than 8 million deaths globally.
The ERS argued that current tobacco control measures, while effective, are not sufficient on their own to achieve the level of decline in smoking needed to protect future generations from tobacco-related disease. The statement therefore supports the implementation of “tobacco endgame” strategies, which seek to reduce smoking prevalence to minimal levels and phase out the commercial sale and use of tobacco products.
Tobacco use continues to impose substantial health, economic, and environmental burdens, said the ERS in a news release. Beyond the direct harms of smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke, tobacco-related disease generates significant healthcare costs and productivity losses, while the tobacco product lifecycle contributes to environmental damage.
The statement outlines a range of evidence-based endgame policies that governments should consider, including stronger tobacco regulation, measures to reduce the attractiveness and availability of tobacco products, and policies designed to prevent future generations from becoming addicted to nicotine. The ERS emphasized that “comprehensive” approaches combining multiple interventions are likely to be most effective.
The society maintains that preventing tobacco initiation and supporting smoking cessation should remain central goals of public health policy. Reducing tobacco consumption at a population level is essential to lowering the burden of respiratory disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other tobacco-related illnesses, according to the statement.
European countries should take concrete steps toward tobacco endgame-oriented policies with the aim of creating a future in which tobacco use is no longer a major threat to public health, said the ERS tobacco control committee members and authors of the statement.
