Tobacco control in Turkey

ABSTRACT

This report was prepared by WHO within the framework of the Bloomberg Global Tobacco ControlInitiative in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the Tobacco and Alcohol Market RegulatoryAuthority in Turkey. It outlines the current state of tobacco-smoking in Turkey, including the health andsocial aspects, epidemiological data and economic, legal and political issues. Turkey, until recently one ofthe major tobacco-producing countries of the world, has made substantial progress in tobacco control in ashort time. The initial efforts of the Ministry of Health in the late 1980s received an impetus when Turkeyratified the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control in 2004. Law No. 4207 of 1996 wassubstantially amended in 2008 and thus became one of the most advanced tobacco control laws in theworld. Even so, smoking is still a serious health problem in the country, with one tenth of all the disability adjusted life-years lost due to smoking. About one third of the population smokes, despite a slightdecrease over the last 15 years.