Hands off! That's what we shout when the tobacco industry tries to undermine the laws that protect people from the ravages of tobacco use, and when it misuses the treaties designed to protect trade and investment in an effort to block a novel law requiring that tobacco be sold in plain, unattractive packages.
That's what we tell an industry that tries to crush the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the landmark public health treaty that now has 174 parties covering more than 85 per cent of the world's population.
And that's what we say to a tobacco industry whose so-called 'corporate social responsibility' projects are designed to buy influence and make people forget that its products cause addiction, suffering and nearly six million deaths per year.
The tobacco industry needs to keep its hands off all the protections that have been erected since science tied smoking to lung cancer, emphysema, cardiovascular disease and a host of other fatal diseases.
The industry is getting more aggressive and brazen. Tobacco giant Philip Morris recently took the unusual step of suing Australia under the country's bilateral investment treaty with Hong Kong on the grounds that Australia's revolutionary plain packaging law infringes on international trademarks.
That's why the World Health Organisation chose 'tobacco industry interference' as the theme of today's World No Tobacco Day.
On this day and throughout the year, the WHO will educate policymakers and the general public about the tobacco industry's nefarious and harmful tactics so that they might be better resisted.