Moving beyond global tobacco control to global disease control

• Published in: Tobacco control Vol. 21; no. 2; pp. 269 - 272
• Main Authors: Wipfli, Heather L, Samet, Jonathan M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 01.03.2012; BMJ Publishing Group; BMJ Publishing Group LTD
• Subjects: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome; AIDS; Chronic Disease - epidemiology; Chronic Disease - prevention & control; Chronic diseases; Chronic illnesses; Diabetes; Disease control; Disease prevention; environmental tobacco smoke; Epidemics; Epidemiology; Funding; Global Health; harm reduction; Health Promotion - methods; Health Promotion - trends; HIV; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; Infectious diseases; International community; International cooperation; Leadership; litigation; Low income groups; Lung cancer; Lung diseases; Minors; national capacity building; Pandemics; Political leadership; prevalence; Preventive medicine; secondhand smoke; Smoking; Smoking - adverse effects; Smoking caused disease; Smoking cessation; Smoking Cessation - methods; Smoking Prevention; Social activism; The future of tobacco control; Tobacco; Tobacco Industry; Tobacco smoking; Tobacco use; Transnationalism
• ISSN: 0964-4563; 1468-3318
• DOI: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2011-050322

Introduction More than 60 years have now passed since epidemiological studies first linked tobacco smoking to lung cancer; the 50-year anniversaries of the 1962 Royal College of Physicians of London and 1964 US Surgeon General's reports, which indicted smoking as causing lung cancer, are approaching. 1 2 While millions of people have since died prematurely from smoking, the policy and prevention initiatives that were motivated by the scientific evidence in these and subsequent reports have finally led to a decline in smoking-caused diseases in many high-income and a few low- and middle-income countries. 3 Will 2011 become the start of a similar pivotal era for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), as was the 1960s for tobacco control? Tobacco control practitioners should take advantage of integrated disease treatment and control programmes to ensure that chronic diseases and tobacco use are addressed together. [...]they should support and participate in the growing 'Health in all Policies' movement that promotes the mobilisation and coordination of health throughout all sectors of governments.