History Of Tobacco Control Research Articles

Weaponising Evidence: A History of Tobacco Control in International Law, written by Margherita Melillo

Weaponising Evidence: A History of Tobacco Control in International Law, written by Margherita Melillo

Preventing Industry Abuse of Cannabis Equity Programs

Enforcement disparities have pervaded the history of U.S. drug control laws, particularly regarding cannabis. These disparities have systemically disadvantaged persons of color and other communities. Responding to these inequities, some state cannabis legalization campaigns have emphasized social justice goals, and states and localities have adopted cannabis social equity programs directed toward communities disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs. These programs encourage and assist individuals from target communities in entering the legal cannabis industry by offering access to grants, loans, and technical assistance and providing priority or preference in licensure, a significant advantage in a competitive industry. Equity programs serve laudable goals but must be structured to mitigate the risk of corporate abuses that threaten public health. The history of tobacco control in particular offers cautionary examples of how for-profit industries can infiltrate communities by leveraging targeted marketing, building political relationships, and operating disproportionately in underprivileged areas. Equity programs’ focus on disadvantaged communities may inadvertently allow this damaging history to repeat in the cannabis industry to the detriment of the communities equity programs seek to help. This Article explores pathways that could lead to industry abuse, surveys possible restrictions within a for-profit market, and assesses options for alternative market structures, including government monopoly, mandatory nonprofit status, and mandatory public benefit company status. Among these options, compulsory public benefit status offers the best combination of current legal feasibility and advancement of social equity goals.

Far from 'mission accomplished': time to re-energise tobacco control in Australia.

Smoking prevalence in Australia has decreased by 75% over the past 40 years. A major reduction in disease burden attributed to smoking has occurred in parallel, adjusted for the time lag between tobacco harms and disease occurrence. Yet, paradoxically, governments have seldom invested in tobacco control measures that require a financial outlay, such as social marketing, at required levels for optimal outcomes. The percentage of disease burden caused by smoking in Australia (9.3%) remains higher than that of any other preventable risk factor and the social costs are estimated at $136.9 billion annually. Tobacco control is rightly seen as an Australian public health success story. However, with up to two in three of Australia's 2.5 million current smokers at risk of dying prematurely from a smoking-related disease, much more needs to be done. In this paper, we explore a brief history of tobacco control in relation to policy reform and recent evidence, and outline the case for re-energising tobacco control at a time when public health has gained new political and social currency.

Fight against smoking as a factor of healthy lifestyle

The article analyzes the impact of lifestyle, tobacco smoking in particular, on health and life expectancy. Using the latest statistics, the author examines the problem of tobacco smoking in Russia and the world, describes the impact of this harmful habit not only on the health of the population, but also on the environment and the economy. The paper provides a brief history of tobacco control, describes modern anti-tobacco measures taken by the world community under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO).Special attention is paid to the state of public opinion on issues related to the prevalence of tobacco smoking in Russia, its impact on the health and life expectancy of the population, the motivation of the population to abandon this habit and the impact on its presence / absence in social environment. It addresses the problem of child and adolescent smoking, analyzes the degree of parental influence and the likelihood that the child, in consequence, will become a regular smoker.The author deals with the problem of passive smoking and the impact of secondary smoke on the health of children and adults, and notes that the anti-tobacco law adopted in Russia in 2013 undoubtedly reduced the number of passive smokers, which had beneficial effect on public health.The work touches upon the currently relevant issue of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS), provides usage statistics, and also raises the question of the consequences of the increasing popularity of ENDS.The empirical base of the work is the data of WHO, the Federal State Statistics Service, the American Cancer Society, as well as studies of the Department of Sociology of Family and Demography (Faculty of Sociology, Lomonosov Moscow State University), the Public Opinion Foundation and the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center.This article will be of interest to specialists in the field of sociology of medicine, as well as to a wide circle of readers interested in the issues of addictive behavior and the formation of a healthy lifestyle.

From anti-smoking activist to archivist and back again: how museum exhibitions on the history of tobacco control are helping to educate a new generation

From anti-smoking activist to archivist and back again: how museum exhibitions on the history of tobacco control are helping to educate a new generation

OA17.06 Make the World Beautiful and Healthy by Making Your Country Smoke Free: Case Study between Iceland and Thailand?

Globally, 600,000 non-smokers die due to tobacco related diseases and health care cost for tobacco related diseases are soaring especially in developing countries.Cigarette smoke contains 69 known carcinogens out of 7000 chemicals causing various health problems in children and infants including ear infections, bronchitis, pneumonia, frequent and severe asthma attacks, sudden infant death syndrome and cancer. Secondhand smoke can cause coronary heart disease, stroke and various kinds of cancer including lung cancer in adult. 2006 U.S. Surgeon General Report clearly confirmed that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Therefore, there is a strong need for comprehensive smoke free law in reducing the burden of tobacco use in the world. Section not applicable. Iceland is a high income country with a long history of tobacco control. The comprehensive tobacco control law was passed in 1984 which included restriction on smoking in service areas of public and private buildings, premises of health care facilities, schools, workplaces, and in public transport whereas Thailand is an upper middle income country and once had a very high smoking rate (70 percent for male and around 5 percent for female) in early 1970. Smoking ban in movie theaters and buses ordinance was issued by Bangkok Metropolitan Administration I n 1976 followed by the comprehensive interventions including smoke-free areas by the royal Thai government in 1991. As a result, the smoking prevalence went down to 32 percent in Thailand but this still demonstrated that one in three adults in 1991. It was found that the role of government and different civil society organizations in implementing smoke free policies was significant in both countries in this review paper. Although both countries issued smoke free policies, there are still challenges on implementation. Iceland try to overcome the challenges by developing comprehensive system including investigation after complaint and allocating budget for enforcement. Thailand also implemented 100% Smoke-Free Hospitals with the compliance rate of 86.4 percent according to a research in 2010. Thailand established the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) in 2001 which allowed Thailand to implement comprehensive tobacco control measures in a sustainable way. ThaiHealth used knowledge generation, social mobilization and policy advocacy called tri-power strategy in achieving the success. This paper concluded that civil society initiative and continuing efforts on tobacco control which leads to adoption of comprehensive tobacco control law is the heart of the success of tobacco control in both countries.

Tobacco control: present and future

The history of tobacco control in the twentieth century can be summed up by the phrase 'too little, too late'. The century saw the proliferation of the most deadly form of tobacco use: cigarette smoking. Until the 1970s, no government took serious action to protect its citizens. In fact, probably the most effective global tobacco control 'strategies' to date have not been motivated by health concerns: they have been inaccessible or uneconomic markets for tobacco companies and a cultural taboo on women smoking. Economic development has led to massive increases in male cigarette smoking in developing countries but even now <10% of women in non-Western countries such as China, Russia and India smoke. With 'westernization', this picture is changing. Without drastic action to get current smokers to stop, the annual rate of tobacco-related deaths will grow from 5 million in 2006 to 10 million in 2025. Without further action to prevent take up of smoking, the subsequent death toll will be even higher. The recently enacted World Health Organization (WHO)-initiated Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) can mitigate this impending disaster but only if it is implemented according to the spirit and not just the letter of the articles contained therein. Specific tobacco levies in every country should be the primary means of kick-starting the process, with the proceeds being used exclusively to fund other tobacco control initiatives, including product regulation.