Quotes by Gro Harlem Brundtland

“I think his own statements are correct,”

“Tobacco has to be addressed and fought now because the children and young people of Asia are becoming influenced.”

“The burden of disease falls on the poor.”

“This is an extremely significant step for international public health,”

“This is a historic moment in global public health, demonstrating the international will to tackle a threat to health head on,”

“Now we must see this convention come into force as soon as possible and countries must use it as the basis of their national tobacco-control legislation.”

“We have seen SARS stopped dead in its tracks,”

“This syndrome, SARS, is now a worldwide health threat, ... The world needs to work together to find its cause, cure the sick and stop its spread.”

“To those young and not so young who might be debating whether or not to start smoking,”

“We have access to internal documents of tobacco companies that tell us that at the same time tobacco companies say they dont target young people, they are still trying to reach children.”

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in women.

Contaminated food is a major cause of diarrhea, substantially contributing to malnutrition and killing about 2.2 million people each year, most of them children.

Such lifestyle factors such as cigarette smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, little physical activity and low dietary calcium intake are risk factors for osteoporosis as well as for many other non-communicable diseases.

A safe and nutritionally adequate diet is a basic individual right and an essential condition for sustainable development, especially in developing countries.

We are also in the process of defining how best to work together with food and other companies to address diet and physical activity factors in order to prevent chronic diseases.

Investing in health will produce enormous benefits.

You cannot achieve environmental security and human development without addressing the basic issues of health and nutrition.

During my nearly five years as director-general of WHO, high-level policymakers have increasingly recognized that health is central to sustainable development.

Intervention for the prevention and control of osteoporosis should comprise a combination of legislative action, educational measures, health service activities, media coverage, and individual counselling to initiate changes in behaviour.

That the AIDS pandemic is threatening sustainable development in Africa only reinforces the reality that health is at the center of sustainable development.