The Jamaica Coalition for Tobacco Control is becoming increasingly concerned about the decision to expand the production of tobacco growing in Jamaica which is in direct contravention of the World Health Organization (WHO) Treaty - The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which the Government of Jamaica signed on September 24, 2003 and ratified on July 7, 2005.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes, are the world’s number one killer causing 60% of deaths globally.

Eliminating heart disease, diabetes and other non-communicable illnesses may add between 4 percent and 10 percent to the gross domestic product of South Asia including India, the World Bank said. Heart disease is the biggest killer of people between the ages of 15 and 69 years in South Asia, the Washington-based bank said in a report published today. Non-communicable diseases now account for more than half of all disease in the region traditionally plagued by infectious maladies, the bank said.