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The tobacco epidemic is a huge public health problem affecting all Latin American countries. These countries have the characteristic of a wide base of the pyramidal population structure, with many young people who have been natural targets for the tobacco industry. Therefore in this region there is an urgent need to establish prevention and treatment strategies capable to reduce incidence and prevalence of tobacco smoking in the population and as a consequence modify the health effects of tobacco consumption. Treating nicotine addiction requires intervention strategies really effective to reduce the number of current smokers as well as giving them tools to avoid relapse and maintain abstinence. Currently poor and vulnerable groups, which represent 44% of the total population in Latin America, are the most susceptible to suffer the health consequences of smoking since they show the highest prevalence rates and have little or no access to health services. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and MPOWER, both strategies proposed by the World Health Organization against tobacco, define clear goals to achieve their purposes, nevertheless they are limited by the economic and human resources assigned by each country. The scientific community involved in the fight against tobacco must think about new ways to place this issue in the political agenda so there will be more opportunities to increase the resources and therefore to reduce tobacco consumption in all the groups of the population. In the fight against tobacco, this is the right time to consider primarily issues related to equity and social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Projections based on the most recent report on the Global Burden of Disease show that the observed increase in smoking prevalence in middle and low income countries will contribute to the increase of the number of deaths due to cardiovascular diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, and some cancers. The World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control recommends a group of actions to curb the tobacco epidemic. This is a review paper based on the most recent MPOWER report and also included in this review are some of the most recent tobacco control measures implemented during 2009 and 2010. We conclude that most Latin American countries have achieved significant progress in tobacco control in recent years. However, when comparing the current situation against the WHO recommendations we realized that for most countries there is still work to be done. If current smoking prevalence among teenagers remains unchanged, there will be a significant increase in the number of premature deaths attributable to tobacco consumption in future decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]