WHO pushes for 50% price increase on sugary drinks, alcohol and tobacco
The United Nations health agency said the move would help cut consumption of the products, which contribute to diseases like diabetes and some cancers, as well as raise money at a time when development aid is shrinking and public debt rising.
'Health taxes are one of the most efficient tools we have,' said Jeremy Farrar, WHO assistant director general of health promotion and disease prevention and control. 'It's time to act.'
The WHO launched the push, which it is called '3 by 35' at the UN Finance for Development conference in Seville.
WHO said that its tax initiative could raise US$1 trillion by 2035 based on evidence from health taxes in countries such as Colombia and South Africa.
The WHO has backed tobacco taxes and price rises for decades, and has called for taxes on alcohol and sugary drinks in recent years, but this is the first time it has suggested a target price rise for all three products.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
3 days ago
- South China Morning Post
Trump's aid cuts risk reversing decades of HIV progress, warns UNAids
The UN has warned that the halt of US foreign aid is a 'ticking time bomb' that could undo decades of progress in the fight against Aids. According to a new report from the UNAids agency, approximately 31.6 million people were on antiretroviral drugs in 2024. Deaths from Aids-related illnesses had dropped by more than half since 2010, totalling 630,000 that year. However, the report cautions that infections are likely to rise as funding cuts have led to the closure of prevention and treatment programmes. The United States has been the world's biggest donor of humanitarian assistance, but President Donald Trump's abrupt slashing of international aid in February sent the global humanitarian community scrambling to keep life-saving operations afloat. 'We are proud of the achievements but worried about this sudden disruption reversing the gains we have made,' UNAids executive director Winnie Byanyima said ahead of the report's launch in Johannesburg. The agency in April warned that a permanent discontinuation of PEPFAR, the massive US effort to fight HIV/Aids, would lead to more than six million new infections and an additional 4.2 million Aids-related deaths in the next four years. Trump's foreign aid cuts will strain responses to health crises worldwide: WHO This would bring the pandemic back to levels not seen since the early 2000s. 'This is not just a funding gap – it's a ticking time bomb,' whose effects are already felt worldwide, Byanyima said in a press release. Over 60 per cent of all women-led HIV organisations surveyed by UNAids had lost funding or had to suspend services, the report said. In a striking example, the number of people receiving pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drugs to prevent transmission in Nigeria fell by over 85 per cent in the first few months of 2025. The 'story of how the world has come together' to fight HIV/Aids is 'one of the most important stories of progress in global health,' Byanyima said. 'But that great story has been disrupted massively' by Trump's 'unprecedented' and 'cruel' move, she said. 'Priorities can shift, but you do not take away life-saving support from people just like that,' she said. Demonstrators protest against cuts to American foreign aid spending, including USAID and the PEPFAR programme to combat HIV/Aids in Washington earlier this year. Photo: AP Crucial medical research on prevention and treatment has also shut down, including many in South Africa, which has one of the highest HIV rates in the world and has become a leader in global research. 'Developing countries themselves contribute very much towards the research on HIV and Aids, and that research serves the whole world,' Byaniyma said. In 25 out of 60 low- and middle-income countries surveyed by UNAIDS, governments had found ways to compensate for part of the funding shortfall with domestic resources. 'We have to move towards nationally-owned and financed responses,' Byaniyma said, calling for debt relief and the reform of international financial institutions to 'free up the fiscal space for developing countries to pay for their own response'. Still, the global HIV response built from grass roots activism was 'resilient by its very nature,' she said. 'We moved from people dying every single day to now a point where it is really like a chronic illness,' she said. 'There is no question that the investment has been worth it and continues to be worth it. It saves lives.'
South China Morning Post
4 days ago
- South China Morning Post
Thailand to require cannabis shops to convert into medical clinics staffed by doctors
Thailand is poised to close most of its cannabis shops by the end of the year under sweeping new rules requiring retailers to operate as licensed medical clinics with on-site doctors – a move that could roll back much of the country's brief experiment with decriminalised marijuana. The new regulations – set to be enforced by the end of the year – will leave around 2,000 of Thailand's estimated 18,000 cannabis shops in operation, a Ministry of Public Health official said on Tuesday. That is because most shops currently operating will not be able to meet the strict new requirements, said Somlerk Jeungsmarn, chief of the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine (DTAM). The new rules will require every cannabis outlet to employ an approved resident doctor who can issue prescriptions for cannabis as a controlled herbal substance. The products must also be sourced from certified suppliers and tested for contaminants such as heavy metals, pesticides and fungi, according to reporting by the Bangkok Post. Staff prepares marijuana for a customer at a cannabis shop after Thailand started banning the sale of cannabis to those without a prescription in Bangkok on June 27. Photo: AP Cannabis was officially designated a 'controlled herb' in June, under an order signed by Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsuthin. The reclassification means the plant can now only be used with a licensed medical prescription, and all professionals authorised to prescribe it must undergo training approved by the health ministry. 'Until enforcement begins, they [retailers] will use the prescription for controlled herbs instead, and the professionals performing this task must be trained by the department,' said Somruek Chungsaman, director-general of the DTAM.
South China Morning Post
06-07-2025
- South China Morning Post
France's new law protects children from second-hand smoke
Last week, France banned smoking on beaches, in parks and outside schools to protect children. Smoking is also banned in public gardens, bus shelters and sports facilities throughout the country. The ban does not include cafe terraces and does not apply to electronic cigarettes. Protecting children from smoke Catherine Vautrin, France's health and families minister, said smoking kills around 200 people every day in the country. 'Where there are children, tobacco must disappear,' she said. Children are frequently exposed to second-hand smoke. This type of smoke is smoke you do not mean to breathe in. It is produced when a tobacco product burns or when a smoker exhales. Even small amounts of second-hand smoke can cause harm. The only way to completely protect people who do not smoke is to get rid of smoking in public spaces. No more smoke According to a report published in May, smoking is actually at a historic low in France. Less than a quarter of French people aged 18 to 75 smoke daily. This is the lowest it has been since the late 1990s. The United Kingdom announced a similar smoking ban last year. According to the World Health Organization, Ireland was the first nation to ban smoking. In 2004, the country passed a law that stopped people from smoking in workplaces, restaurants and bars.
