Turkey wins plaudits for tobacco control

Abstract

“Smoking like a Turk” was a common expression in several European languages during the past century but now Turkey is receiving international plaudits for its eff orts to stamp out the country’s traditional and deeply rooted consumption of tobacco. One in three Turks, or about 31% of the population, smoked in 2008, when Turkey became the third country to introduce a widespread smoking ban after Ireland and the UK, Nazmi Bilir, a professor of public health at Ankara’s Hacettepe University, told The Lancet. “Smoking has been a traditional, male behaviour in Turkey so it’s not been easy”, Bilir said. “But my feeling is that Turkey will become truly smoke-free.” Hopes are high that the next Turkish survey of smoking consumption, to be released in the autumn, will show that up to 2 million Turks have quit since 2008, bringing the rate down to around 25%, he said. For comparison, around 20% of people smoke in the UK and in the USA. “If someone told me 5 or 10 years ago that Turkey would be a smoke-free country, I’d have thought they were making a joke”, said Toker Erguder, manager of WHO’s Tobacco Control/ Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use programme in Turkey. Turkey ranked fourth, after the UK, Ireland, and Norway, in the European Tobacco Control Scale published by the Association of European Cancer Leagues last year. “I believe Turkey will one day be a tobaccofree country. I can’t say in how many months from now that will happen but we’re going in a good direction”, said Erguder. Turkey was one of several countries to be given a Bloomberg Award for Global Tobacco Control earlier this year. The Turkish National Coalition on Tobacco or Health (SSUK)—a coalition of more than 40 Turkish organisations that focus on tobacco—was recognised for its advocacy to ensure that the country’s laws were strong and comprehensive and for its monitoring of these laws.