Op-ed by Dr Arvind Mathur, WHO Representative
In Timor-Leste today, nearly one in five students reports having used tobacco. Almost twenty percent of schools have a tobacco vendor operating at their entrance. These figures, captured in a recent national school survey, say a great deal about how close the tobacco trade has moved to our children, and why the theme of World No Tobacco Day 2026, Unmask the Appeal, speaks so directly to this country.
Observed every 31 May, the day asks us to confront how the tobacco and nicotine products are made to seem attractive, modern and harmless, particularly to young people. For Timor-Leste, that message is urgent, and nowhere is it clearer than at the school gates.
Recent findings from the Say No to 5S endline survey, which returned to schools across the country to see what had changed since the project began, sharpen the concern. Student tobacco use has fallen, but barely. More strikingly, the proportion of teachers who reported catching students smoking on school premises rose from 2.5 percent a few years ago to almost 22 percent now. When students themselves admit to using tobacco, and when teachers are increasingly finding them doing so on school grounds, we are almost certainly seeing only the visible edge of a larger problem.
These findings point to a hard truth. Tobacco use remains socially normalised in Timor-Leste, and that normalisation is reaching the young. The most recent national risk-factor survey found 60 percent of Timorese adults using tobacco in some form, with prevalence at 77.5 percent among men and 45 percent among women. Tobacco kills up to half of those who use it and do not quit. This is not a comforting picture, and it brings us directly to the heart of this year's theme.
In Timor-Leste, the appeal we are being asked to unmask is often very physical. It is the single cigarette sold for a few cents to a child or a young adult whose pocket money would never stretch to a full pack but easily covers one stick. The economic logic of the single cigarette is precisely this: it turns an unaffordable habit into an accessible one. This is how nicotine dependence takes hold in a young brain, and why single sticks near schools is among the most important challenges we face.
Fortunately, Timor-Leste has the legal foundations to meet this challenge. Since becoming a Party to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) in 2004, it has introduced strong pictorial health warnings across tobacco packages, restrictions on smoking in public places, and a ban on the sale of single cigarettes. These measures give the country a solid platform from which to protect its people, especially its children.
Encouragingly, the school survey also shows that this platform is increasingly being put to work. Student-led anti-smoking clubs grew from 22 percent of schools to 83 percent, while counselling support at schools have expanded. Written tobacco-control policies, present in fewer than one percent of schools previously, are now in place in more than 95 percent.
Seen in this light, even the sharp rise in teachers catching students reflects greater awareness and vigilance, the fruit of sustained effort to equip them to respond to tobacco use. These achievements reflect the strong commitment of the Ministries of Health and Education, teachers and communities alike; and extends well beyond the school.
The Ministry of Health, with the support of WHO and partners, has established a national multisectoral taskforce bringing together health, education, inspection, municipal authorities, civil society, media and law enforcement. Enforcement guidelines under the national Tobacco Control Decree Law are being developed, including strengthening implementation of the ban on single-stick sales.
Important challenges nevertheless remain. Enforcement of smoke-free public places, of advertising restrictions, and of protection from tobacco industry interference all require continued strengthening. So does the law against single cigarettes. Four in five adults in this country are exposed to second-hand smoke at home, and more than half are exposed at work. These everyday exposures shape what children see, breathe and come to accept as normal.
And even as we confront these familiar challenges, new ones are knocking at the door, aimed squarely at the same young people. Electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products are marketed as modern, clean and less harmful, often through flavours, sleek packaging and social media. Truth is these products deliver nicotine, which is powerfully addictive to the developing adolescent brain, and their long-term effects on the heart and lungs are still emerging.
The next decade of tobacco control in this region will be fought largely on this new terrain, and the decisions taken now, on flavours, sales, taxation and advertising, will determine whether Timor-Leste's hard-won progress is consolidated or quietly eroded.
This World No Tobacco Day is a call to unmask tobacco’s appeal for what it is: a cheap stick or flavoured device today, addiction and disease tomorrow. Timor-Leste must strengthen enforcement of the laws already in place; sustain prevention, awareness and cessation support. We must make schools, health facilities, workplaces and public spaces truly tobacco-free. And remain vigilant against new products designed to recruit a new generation into nicotine addiction. The school gate is where so much of this begins, and it is where so much of the solution lies.