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Voon, Tania --- "WTO law and risk factors for noncommunicable diseases: a complex relationship" [2013] ELECD 641; in Van Calster, Geert; Prévost, Denise (eds), "Research Handbook on Environment, Health and the WTO" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013) 390

Book Title: Research Handbook on Environment, Health and the WTO

Editor(s): Van Calster, Geert; Prévost, Denise

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847208972

Section: Chapter 13

Section Title: WTO law and risk factors for noncommunicable diseases: a complex relationship

Author(s): Voon, Tania

Number of pages: 19

Abstract/Description:

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) – principally cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes – cause 60 per cent of all deaths in the world, with 80 per cent of deaths due to NCDs occurring in low-income and middle-income countries. The major common risk factors for NCDs are tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity. The World Health Organization (WHO) and other United Nations (UN) bodies are increasingly recognizing NCDs and their associated risk factors as a problem requiring urgent attention. In 2005, the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC) entered into force; at the time of writing it has 176 parties. In April 2008, the WHO’s decision-making body, the World Health Assembly (WHA), adopted a resolution endorsing the 2008–2013 Action Plan for the Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases.