“Public health professionals, as well as the framers of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), have long envisioned a world free from tobacco-caused death and disease.” *
Dr. Eduardo Bianco, Director of International Policy Education in Addiction for the Addiction Training for Health Professionals (ATHP) program at the Ulrich and Ruth Frank Foundation for International Health (the Frank Foundation), extensively explores tobacco endgame strategies in pursuit of this vision. On the heels of his recent webinar on Americas Regional Tobacco Endgame, Dr. Bianco recently co-authored an article published in the PAHO Special Report on Tobacco Control, examining ‘Progress, challenges and the need to set concrete goals in the global tobacco endgame.’ Fellow authors included Chris Bostic (Action on Smoking and Health, USA) and Marita Hefler (Menzies School of Health Research, Australia).
Through this article, the concept of endgame strategies, “initiatives designed to permanently change the structural, political and social dynamics that sustain the commercial tobacco epidemic in order to end it within a specific time”** were explored extensively. The article examined recent progress in the tobacco endgame, its relationship to existing tobacco control policies, and inherent challenges while highlighting how endgame planning can be adapted to differing tobacco control contexts.
Through this work, policies in the United States, Netherlands, and New Zealand were analyzed. Trends in tobacco endgame strategy planning in Europe were also examined. They asserted the need for integration of endgame targets into policy, specifying timeframes and considering the contextual dynamics of the setting in relation to tobacco control and the WHO FCTC. Along with highlighting these important considerations, potential challenges were also identified. Such challenges include legal challenges, the trend of controversial e-cigarettes, and the actions of the tobacco industry‘s key players.
In order to mitigate these challenges, Dr. Bianco and his co-authors were proponents of a contractionary approach: “to reduce the availability of all tobacco products, with the most aggressive phase-out timelines focused on the most harmful.”*** They urged the tobacco control community to leverage the mounting theoretical and empirical evidence, political will, and growing public support to develop concrete plans to achieve the goal of a tobacco-free world.
If you are interested in reading more about Dr. Bianco and his co-authors’ work on this topic, the full article can be accessed at the following link:
https://iris.paho.org/bitstream/handle/10665.2/56458/v46e1182022.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
References
*Bostic C, Bianco E, Hefler M. Progress, challenges and the need to set concrete goals in the global tobacco endgame. Rev Panam Salud Publica. 2022;46:e118. https://doi.org/10.26633/RPSP.2022.118
**McDaniel PA, Smith EA, Malone RE. The tobacco endgame: a qualitative review and synthesis. Tob Control. 2016;25(5):594-604
***https://iris.paho.org/bitstream/handle/10665.2/56458/v46e1182022.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Seema Persaud
Author
