Impatient Optimists
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Topics / Tobacco

Tobacco use can be prevented. However, death, disease, and poverty due to tobacco use stubbornly persist. Our goal is to significantly reduce tobacco-caused disease, death, and poverty in the developing world.

Learn more below and visit the program page for more details about our work in this area.

Landmark Win For Public Health – Australia Upholds Tobacco Plain Packaging

August 15, 2012 / Cynthia Lewis

In one of the most significant victories for public health policy, the Australian High Court upheld the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act, which effectively removes the last form of advertising available to the tobacco industry in the country – logos on cigarette
packs.

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Tobacco's Deadly Legacy

May 31, 2012 / Amie Newman

By the end of the 21st century, more than one billion people are expected to die from illnesses related to tobacco use primarily in low to middle income countries.

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The Global Tobacco Epidemic in 2011

July 14, 2011 / Cynthia Lewis

Last week, the WHO launched their third Report On The Global Tobacco Epidemic, for 2011, in a series of reports about the extent of the global tobacco epidemic and the policy measures to stop it.

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  • "Our desire to bring every good thing to our children is a force for good throughout the world. It’s what propels societies forward." —Melinda Gates

  • The Global Fund has helped to deliver more than 190 million bed nets to protect families from malaria.

  • "The world faces a clear choice. If we invest relatively small amounts, many more poor farmers will be able to feed their families." —Bill Gates, 2012 Annual Letter

  • "When it come to global health, Bill and I are optimists—but we're impatient optimists. Tremendous progress is being made. But there is still so much we're impatient to see done." —Melinda French Gates

  • In Senegal, 80% of households now have a bed net, helping the number of malaria cases there drop 50% in a single year.

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