BACKGROUND The illicit tobacco trade results in huge losses of revenue to governments, estimated at $US40-50 billion in 2006, and in increased consumption and thus health problems because it makes tobacco available more cheaply. On 20 October 2008 the second meeting of the International Negotiating Body (INB2) on the illicit trade protocol of WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)...

Smoking cessation is the only way to quickly mitigate the burden of disease and the increased risk of death faced by smokers. In this issue of the Journal, He et al. (Am J Epidemiol. 2014;179(9):1060-1070) document lower relative risks of overall and cause-specific mortality among former smokers compared with continuing smokers in a cohort in China. For China, an immediate increase in the pace ...

Cigarette butts (tobacco product waste (TPW)) are the single most collected item in environmental trash cleanups worldwide. This brief descriptive study used an online survey tool (Survey Monkey) to assess knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs among individuals representing the Framework Convention Alliance (FCA) about this issue. The FCA has about 350 members, including mainly non-governmental tob...

Ammonia is an important component of tobacco,primarily, because it is believed to facilitate the absorption of nicotine [1-4]. In addition, ammonium compounds react with sugars during tobacco processing and smoking to form flavour components that ‘improve’ the taste of tobacco smoke [5]. For these reasons, it has been selected as priority component for method development for the WHO Framework C...

The World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is a unique global health instrument, since it is in the health field the only instrument that is international law. After the 10 years of its existence an Independent Expert Group assessed the impact of the FCTC using all available data and visiting a number of countries interviewing different stakeholders. It i...

INTRODUCTION There have been momentous events in tobacco control since the first edition of Tobacco Control was launched in 1992. These include increased global awareness of the harmfulness of tobacco and the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). The WHO FCTC represents the most momentous milestone; it was the first treaty negotiated under the auspices of the WHO and entered i...

This will not come as a great surprise to many readers, but it turns out that multinational tobacco companies are not generous, kind hearted or benevolent, and that any similarity they bear to boy scouts or fairy godmothers is dangerously misleading. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) Conference of the Parties (COP), meeting last November in Durban, reminded us of these truths. ...

Tobacco advertising bans have become commonplace in developed nations but are less prevalent in developing countries. The importance of advertising bans as part of comprehensive tobacco control strategies has been emphasised by the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control which calls for comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising. The empirical literature suggests that comprehensive advertising b...