The Tobacco Endgame

An endgame for tobacco?

Since its origins in the 1960s, tobacco control has achieved remarkable success against the scourge of tobacco-produced disease and death. Yet tobacco use, especially cigarette smoking, remains the world's leading cause of preventable premature death and is likely to do so for decades to come. Evidence-based policies seem incapable of substantially hastening the demise of smoking. Slowness in t...

Reflections on the ‘endgame’ for tobacco control

To cite: Zeller M. Tob Control 2013;22:i40–i41. The concept of an ‘endgame’ for tobacco control efforts is receiving increasing attention in advocacy, policy and academic circles. This may strike some as entirely premature in countries such as Bangladesh, where 63% of adults are exposed to secondhand smoke in the workplace, or the Russian Federation, where 60% of adult men still smoke. Nonethel...

The Tobacco Endgame: Is It Possible?

May 31 is World No Tobacco Day 2015. The day raises an interesting question: is a tobacco endgame possible? The answer, of course, is “it depends.”However, the event provides a reflective opportunity to see just where we are in the extraordinary global battle against the world’s most important preventable health risk. A great deal is in fact happening in pursuit of the endgame, and these effort...

Political impediments to a tobacco endgame

Any serious consideration of exploring a tobacco endgame in the USA must build upon the enviable track record of reducing tobacco use through a mixture of federal and state policies. This foundation may pose particular challenges in approaching an endgame, including questions of national political feasibility, public support, limitations of sub-federal experimentation and recruitment of future ...

Modelling of tobacco endgame interventions: a response.