Ukraine makes significant progress in fighting tobacco use: 20% reduction in adult smokers since 2010

Delegates from 137 countries, including representative from governments, United Nations agencies, international intergovernmental organizations and the civil society gathered in Geneva the first week of October for the Eighth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP8) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to exchange their experience and to discuss the future of tobacco control in the context of building a healthier and sustainable world. This year, the Conference participants paid particular attention to the issues of illicit tobacco trade, innovative tobacco products (e-cigarettes and vaping devices), tobacco advertising, as well as the composition, packaging and labeling of tobacco products.

The COP8 Session started with the presentation of the results of the 2018 Global Progress Report – a publication on global progress in the implementation of the tobacco control treaty, which is annually prepared based on the data from official reports submitted by Parties to the Convention Secretariat.

Head of the Convention Secretariat WHO FCTC Dr. Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva underlined, “We are happy to report, based on the information received from the Parties in the 2018 reporting cycle, that progress is evident in implementation of most articles to the Convention, especially the time bound measures concerning smoke-free environments, packaging and labelling and tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship ban”.

Ukraine is one of the State Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), as it ratified the Convention in 2006. In recent years, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine has been paying more attention to tobacco control, and Ukraine has strengthened its anti-tobacco legislation resulting in a significant reduction in prevalence of tobacco smoking.

"Over the past decade, Ukraine has made significant progress in the implementation of the WHO FCTC. For instance, the results of the relevant surveys reveal that since 2010 the number of adult smokers has decreased by 20%, while the number of smokers among adolescents has decreased by almost 40%. We have much to be proud of, but there are still some issues to be addressed. Therefore, with the support of the WHO Country Office in Ukraine, international organizations and the civil society, we continue working on the development of the national tobacco control policy to fulfil all the requirements of the WHO FCTC. In particular, we are currently working on ratifying the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, as well as implementing the provisions of Articles 9, 11 and 13 of the WHO FCTC, and the provisions of Directive 2014/40/EC. We also need to focus on some other issues that we consider critical. First and foremost, we are concerned about the growing popularity of innovative tobacco products – e-cigarettes and vaping devices," commented Kateryna Rymarenko, the delegate from the Ministry of Health of Ukraine to the Conference of the Parties to the WHO FCTC .

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