Tupakointi

Tupakointi ja yleinen järjestys

Tupakkateollisuuden taloudellinen merkitys oli vuosisatojen ajan ollut tärkeä tekijä tupakkatuotteita koskevan julkisen politiikan määrittämisessä. Siksi huolimatta satunnaisista tupakkatuotteiden tuotannon kieltämistä koskevista pyrkimyksistä tupakka-alan sääntelyn tärkein potku kaikkialla maailmassa oli tupakkakaupan jatkuva elinkelpoisuuden varmistaminen ja verojen kantaminen tuotteistaan. Erityinen sääntelykehys vaihteli maittain, mutta tulos oli pääosin sama kaikkialla: tupakka vapautettiin tavanomaisesta valvonnasta, jota muille tuotteille tehtiin. Esimerkiksi Yhdysvalloissa tupakkatuotteet, jotka perinteisesti kuuluivat alkoholi-, tupakka- ja ampuma-aseiden toimiston lainkäyttövaltaan, vapautettiin muiden kuluttajille tarkoitettujen tuotteiden perusedellytyksistä. Kuitenkin kesäkuussa 2009 YhdysvalloissaSenaatti äänesti ylivoimaisella tavalla tupakkatuotteiden sääntelyn siirtämisestä elintarvike- ja lääkehallinnolle (FDA), jolloin tupakkalle asetettiin samat terveysvaatimukset kuin kaikille muille liittovaltion säätelemille elintarvikkeille, lääkkeille ja kemiallisille tuotteille. Yhdysvaltain presidentti allekirjoitti tupakoinnin vastaisen lakiesityksen, joka tunnetaan nimellä Tupakoinnin estäminen ja tupakoinnin torjunta. Barack Obama 22. kesäkuuta 2009. Vuonna 2016 FDA valmisteli säännön, jolla sen toimivaltaa laajennettiin kattamaan kaikki tupakkatuotteet, mukaan lukien sikarit, e-savukkeet, vesipiipputupakka ja piipputupakka. Säännössä annettiin myös säännöksiä e-savukkeiden, sikarien ja vesipiipputupakan myynnin estämiseksi alle 18-vuotiaille ja vaadittiin, että kaikkiin uusiin säänneltyihin tupakkatuotteisiin sovelletaan samoja normeja kuin tuotteisiin, joita on säännelty vuodesta 2009,mukaan lukien, että kaikilla säännellyillä tupakkatuotteilla on terveysvaroituksia pakkauksissaan.

The state of affairs for tobacco regulation had begun to change in the early 1960s, when the United Kingdom’s Royal College of Physicians (in 1962) and the U.S. surgeon general (in 1964) concluded that cigarette smoking caused lung cancer and other diseases. These reports were based largely on the rapidly mounting evidence from laboratory studies of smoke toxins and from population studies of disease risk in cigarette smokers in the 1950s. The reports paved the way for scientifically based health considerations to emerge as significant factors in the creation of tobacco public policy. Initial efforts were often aimed at specific issues, such as how tar and nicotine in cigarettes should be measured and advertised, health warnings on cigarette packaging, and smoking-prevention programs for young people. These limited efforts were generally thwarted or weakened by tobacco interests. Nonetheless, smoking by adults began to subside in the 1970s and 1980s in many developed countries, particularly in the United States, Canada, Sweden, and Australia. At the same time, the prevalence of smoking was rapidly increasing in many less-developed countries, particularly in Asia and Africa. By the 1990s the toll in death and disease in these countries was mounting rapidly, and youth smoking began to shoot upward in some of the countries, including the United States and Canada, that had shown great strides in the reduction of smoking in the 1970s and 1980s.

In the 1990s several currents converged to foster major smoking-control policy initiatives around the world. The leading current was an extensive body of scientific research that proved the deadly and addictive effects of tobacco beyond the ability of even the tobacco industry to deny. This included evidence that environmental smoke was more than an annoyance—it was lethal for thousands of nonsmokers and a cause of respiratory disease in children. A second current was the sheer magnitude of the economic losses projected to be caused by tobacco use, as measured by the diversion of health care funds for the treatment of tobacco-related illnesses and by the loss of worker productivity. A third current was litigation brought against the tobacco industry by governments and individuals. These lawsuits brought to light millions of secret documents showing that the tobacco industry had long known its products were highly addictive and deadly. Finally, the growing recognition that environmental tobacco smoke was deadly even for nonsmokers led to efforts to restrain and contain smoking. These efforts further decreased smoking rates, making it possible for even stronger regulatory actions to be taken.

By the end of the 20th century, therefore, organized campaigns had led to the implementation of a wide spectrum of tobacco-related measures, including increases in the price of cigarettes and restrictions on their availability, restrictions in advertising, disclosure of information on the health consequences of tobacco use, protection of nonsmokers from environmental tobacco smoke, and regulation of manufacturing standards for tobacco companies. In the many countries that implemented such measures, per capita cigarette consumption was much reduced from earlier decades. However, in many developing countries and in the world as a whole, cigarette consumption continued to increase. In response to this increase, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other health organizations sought to step up coordinated international efforts to regulate tobacco products in the late 1990s. In 2003 WHO adopted a tobacco-control treaty designed to serve as an international framework for tobacco regulation. Known as the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, it imposed controls over tobacco-industry marketing, required health-warning labels on tobacco products, and sought to reduce the exposure of users and nonusers alike to tobacco toxins. The treaty was ratified at a rapid pace by many countries, and it entered into force in early 2005. Although some major countries, including the United States and China, had not ratified it by that time, more than one-third of the signatory countries had done so, including Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, and many developing countries. (China later ratified the treaty in October 2005.)