ABSTRACT
In her first statement to the World Health Assembly, on 13 May 1998, Dr Brundtland, newly elected Director-General of World Health Organisation (WHO) stated bluntly: ‘Tobacco is a killer’. Without government commitment, tobacco control measures are less likely to succeed. WHO went one step further in its fight against tobacco when the organization called on international food and drug regulators to bring cigarettes and other tobacco industry products under the same ambit of rules that govern the sales and promotion of other nicotine delivery products. The Expert Report found that tobacco companies successfully concealed their role in establishing contacts with the International Agency for Research on Cancer investigators (IARC). In the fight against tobacco, WHO changed its role: from its traditional role as a benevolent world health leader or partner, setting standards and preaching public health, it moved into the position of an aggressed and aggressive leader openly fighting against a devious, unprincipled, enemy.
