World No Tobacco Day falls on 31 May every year.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that tobacco use is currently responsible for the death of about seven million adults across the world each year.
On average in developed countries, smokers die 14 years before their time and lose 23 years of their life. There is irrefutable evidence of the devastating health impacts of smoking and a long list of health consequences and diseases caused by tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke (second hand smoking).
Singapore has made great strides in the area of tobacco control, having implemented and enforced many of the key WHO tobacco control measures such as tax increases, advertising bans, smoke-free public areas and raising the Minimal Legal Age for smoking. Most recently, Singapore has also passed the legislation to implement standardised packaging with enlarged graphic health warnings.
With this important health issue in mind, the School hosted the Public Health Thought Leadership Dialogue on ‘Challenges Facing Current and Future Tobacco Control’ on 6 Mar 2019, to explore and discuss issues surrounding tobacco control. After the event, leaders in health promotion and tobacco control from across the region took part in a closed-door discussion on the current position of individual countries and opportunities where collective approaches may add value. The discussion focused on the evidence-based WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) and the WHO MPOWER measures.
This report summarises the themes from the Public Health Thought Leadership Dialogue and closed-door discussion, as well as next steps in four key areas.
Read the report here.
Media Coverage:
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For World No Tobacco Day, the School also interviewed Dr Yvette van der Eijk, Senior Research Fellow and one of the panellists at the Public Health Thought Leadership Dialogue. Read more about her research and reflections on the dynamics between tobacco control measures and the tobacco industry here.