The modern era of tobacco litigation began with a personal injury lawsuit in the United States in 1954. For more than 40 years, the tobacco industry boasted it had not lost a single case, but this has changed. A seminal judgment in 1994 released into the public domain millions of pages of internal tobacco industry documents. These internal documents reveal that tobacco companies actively concealed their knowledge about the harmfulness of smoking and intentionally deceived governments, the media, and their clients—smokers—about the extent of death and disease caused by their products.

Litigation puts the industry on the political defensive, forces tobacco companies to the bargaining table, and results in large settlements, with the industry paying U.S. states billions of dollars per year. A landmark case was decided on August 17, 2006, when U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler ruled that tobacco company defendants violated the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

Lawsuits against the tobacco industry were spearheaded in the U.S. judicial system, but tobacco litigation is clearly increasing around the world. The World Health Organization encourages litigation for the purpose of tobacco control, advocating that individuals and governments consider taking legal action, where necessary, to address criminal activity, product liability, health-care cost recovery, and other civil torts. Increasing numbers and types of lawsuits are being pressed against tobacco companies in Brazil, Canada, Israel, Italy, Nigeria, Poland, Turkey, and elsewhere.

Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies
Protect people from tobacco smoke
Offer help to quit tobacco use
Warn about the dangers of tobacco
Enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship
Raise taxes on tobacco

Building on the first-ever global public health treaty - the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) - the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2008 issued a comprehensive country-level report on the global tobacco epidemic. This report provides data from 179 countries covering 99% of the world’s population and sets baselines for implementation and enforcement of the six evidence-based and cost-effective policies of the WHO MPOWER strategy. Currently only 5% of the world’s population is fully protected by any one of the MPOWER interventions and no country implements and enforces all of them. By taking action to implement MPOWER, the leaders of governments and civil society can create the necessary environment to protect children from tobacco, help people quit tobacco use and save millions of lives a year.

The final version of the online Tobacco Atlas will have information on MPOWER steps related to the issues portrayed on each map.