Translating the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC): can we use tobacco control as a model for other non-communicable disease control?

Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death in the world today. Unchecked, tobacco-related deaths will increase to more than eight million per year by 2030. Galvanized by the seriousness of the threat, the Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) negotiated the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), which entered into force in 2005. The treaty has enjoyed tremendous global success, with more than 170 Parties, and is often called the most powerful tool in the fight against tobacco-related morbidity and mortality. As the world undergoes the long-predicted transition from communicable to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) posing the greater health burden, seminal ideas, processes, and outcomes like the WHO FCTC can be used to inform decision-making and policy-making. To help begin such knowledge transfer, this paper first examines how tobacco control evolved to become a reasonable, politically feasible topic for treating in the highly globalized context of public health and NCDs. Next, some of the key achievements and challenges that have occurred over the past six years of WHO FCTC implementation are discussed. Finally, a consideration of how some of the successes and lessons learned in tobacco control appear in other NCD contexts is presented.