"Center of attention" is a common phrasing so it's a referent for any other similar sentence pattern.Changing a cliche, or familiar phrasing, would have to be purposeful like a play on words, for instance, but your second sentence doesn't do this -so, it's awkward, rather than effective.

Yes, your sentence is grammatically correct. However, I would just add that "member states" suggests one global world in which we have only states rather than countries. I suggest that "disease" should be "diseases" since tobacco causes so many problems, and change "caused" to present tense "causes" since it is an on-going problem.

"The test of time" also suggests that Time is a personification because it can provide the test to prove whether or not something, or some idea, is worthy enough for succeeding generations to also value.