Experts respond to dismantlement of tobacco control in the Netherlands

Despite being party to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, earlier this year the Dutch government announced that it would be cutting all tobacco related health education programs and that smoke-free policies in the country would be weakened.  The Netherlands suffers from a relatively high adult smoking rate of 27% and, according to recent research by the International Tobacco Control Evaluation Project (ITC), Dutch smokers’ understanding of the impact of their smoking on others is lower than that of smokers in any other countries studied, even China.  The action of the Dutch government fly in the face of ever-growing evidence on adverse health effects of tobacco and secondhand smoke and the effectiveness of tobacco control measures set out in the Framework Convention of Tobacco control.

Tobacco control advocates, including President Sidney C Smith, Jr and Vice President Hans Stam, have articulated their reaction in a letter to the editor of The Lancet published online today.  Read the letter here.

Learn more about the ITC - the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project 

Learn more about the tobacco control and the WHO FCTC 

Read the recent article on theheart.org where Hans Stam and Johanna Ralston discuss the need for physician advocates in tobacco control

See coverage of this story in Reuters