The tobacco endgame: The neglected role of place and environment (original) (raw)

Tobacco control and sustainable development: shared challenges and future opportunities

Journal of Health Inequalities, 5 (1), pp.71-79, 2019

In recent years, scholars and public health officials have increasingly perceived tobacco as a threat to sustainable development. This article explores how stronger tobacco control efforts can contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. Most obviously, given that tobacco use and exposure account for over 7.2 million deaths annually, tobacco control is a fundamental prerequisite for achieving SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being. However, the article also shows how tobacco is, among others, a driver of poverty and inequalities , a threat to sustainable economic growth, a challenge to the environment, and an obstacle to good governance. In effect, tobacco hinders progress on a host of other SDGs. Particular emphasis is placed on SDG 17: Partnership for the goals. While tobacco control partnerships for the past decades have helped attain public health progress globally, there is a risk of this SDG being hijacked by the tobacco industry and other corporate actors, who use it as a tool to justify the proliferation of public-private partnerships. Finally , the article calls for greater cross-disciplinary thinking and closer collaboration between tobacco control and development scholars, which could be crucial in designing successful tobacco control interventions in low-and middle-income countries, and could help achieve the Sustainable Development Agenda.

Tobacco control in the Sustainable Development Goals: a precarious inclusion?

The Lancet Public Health

Tobacco control in the Sustainable Development Goals: a precarious inclusion? The Lancet Public Health editorial in April, 2017, called for tobacco control to be "firmly anchored in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)". 1 As development practitioners, we are cognisant that governments face tough resourcing and implementation decisions to achieve this ambitious agenda (17 goals and 169 targets). Despite inclusion of a specific target for implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC; target 3.a), there is a risk that tobacco control will remain a focus for the health community only. To gain insight about how tobacco control featured in the SDG design process, we looked at: 27 970 webbased submissions; 72 reports of national consultations; and nine reports of global thematic consultations organised around themes such as inequality, health, conflict, and fragility. We also looked at five high-level UN synthesis reports of discussions. 2-6 We did a keyword search for terms associated with tobacco, the WHO FCTC, and comparator health issues historically included in development discourse. Tobacco control was discussed far less frequently than many other health priorities, ranking third-to-We declare no competing interests.

What are the elements of the tobacco endgame?

Tobacco Control, 2012

The available literature on tobacco endgames tends to be limited to discussing means, targets and difficulties. This article offers additional ideas on the key elements of endgame strategies and the circumstances in which these are likely to be adopted and implemented. We suggest such strategies will include explicit plans, will define the nature of 'the end of tobacco use/sale' and have target dates within 20 years. The likely circumstances for endgame strategy development include low (probably under 15% adult smoking) prevalence and/or rapid prevalence reductions, wide support and strong political leadership. Even with some or all these circumstances, opposition from business, internal government forces and international factors may influence results.

The tobacco industry tactics-a challenge for tobacco control in low and middle income countries

2010

Tobacco use has fallen over the past decades in many developed countries. However in the developing countries smoking and tobacco use in general is now emerging. This commentary discusses the tactics of the tobacco industry and the challenges for tobacco in middle and low income countries in the 21st century. Currently, there are over 1.2 billion tobacco users in the world. It is worrying that of this; well over 800 million are living in developing.1,2 Out of the total burden of tobacco-related diseases globally, 70% will occur in developing countries by 2030. Tobacco consumption has fallen over the past 20 years in most high-income countries such as the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada, Finland and most European countries.1 On the contrary; tobacco use has risen to unprecedented levels in middle and low-income countries, especially in Asia and Africa.1 Thus, Africa and Asia are the current targets of the tobacco industry. In the pursuit of this agenda, the industry has emp...