Secondly, the study helped to find the prevalence of smoking among teachers as they are considered to be students’ role models. A limitation of Celecoxib the study is that the data reflect respondents’ subjective perceptions. Conclusion Prevalence of tobacco smoking among Botswana teachers was relatively low. Factors such as gender, school level and body mass index have been associated with smoking. Measures should be put in place to monitor compliance with measures that have been put in place

to control tobacco smoking. Competing interests The authors declare they have no competing interests. Authors’ contributions PNE and DRS conceived and designed the study. PNE carried out data collection and analysis. PNE and DRS read and approved the final manuscript.
Tobacco use remains the leading, single most preventable cause of death globally; the current annual death rate attributable to tobacco use stands at about 5.4 million deaths per year and is projected to increase to more than 8 million deaths annually by 2030 if urgent tobacco control efforts are not instituted [1]. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), created to respond to the looming tobacco epidemic, as well as protect and promote global

public health, articulates provisions that aim to reduce the supply and demand of tobacco globally. Adopted in November 2008, Article 11 guidelines [2] lists provisions for the regulation of tobacco product packaging and labeling. Tobacco companies are increasingly using the cigarette package as a primary marketing vehicle, as is evident from this statement from the industry: “Our final communication vehicle with our smoker is the pack itself. In the absence of any other marketing messages, our packaging…is the sole communicator of our essence” [3]. The significant advertising potential of the cigarette packet is underscored by the

persistent push back of the tobacco industry against plain packaging and other measures to reduce tobacco use [4]. Strong health warning messages can influence the decision to initiate or quit smoking [5,6], and these measures can be implemented at virtually no cost to government [7]. In addition, Drug_discovery there is strong public support for strong health warnings, even among smokers [8-12]. However, it is not clear the extent to which countries are enacting strong tobacco packaging regulations that are consistent with the FCTC article 11 guidelines. This paper assesses the level of compliance of country tobacco laws with the mandatory components of the FCTC article 11 guidelines, and identifies common areas of weakness in tobacco labeling laws in the countries that contribute the most to the global burden from smoking across all six WHO regions. Methods Country selection Countries with the highest numbers of smokers in each WHO region were selected for this study.