Live it up without lighting up.

The tide against the tobacco industry is growing. The World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), a global public health treaty on tobacco control, has been ratifi ed by 174 WHO Member States covering more than 87% of the world’s population.1 At the recently concluded 15th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Singapore, the Director General (WHO), Dr Margaret Chan, urged the world to ‘stand shoulder to shoulder’ to fi ght tobacco industry intimidation. The industry has mounted legal challenges against countries—Australia, Norway, Uruguay and Turkey—which have put in place novel legislative measures to protect the health of their citizens. Endgame tobacco control strategies as viable public health policy options are also increasingly being discussed.2-4 Such optimism in reducing tobacco use prevalence close to zero would be unheard of 20 years ago. Cigarette production began around the time of the World War I and it was then the ala mode of the era to be seen smoking. However, cigarette smoking soon became implicated in the 1930s as the major cause of diseases, particularly lung cancer. The landmark publications of Wynder et al’s5 and Doll et al’s6 classic papers in 1950 which were rapidly followed by other works, mainly in Western populations, provided overwhelming evidence of tobacco use (primarily smoking ) as a risk factor for many chronic diseases. Locally, research among the Chinese cohort in recent years had added to the evidence including lifestyles of smokers, risks of tobacco use and environmental tobacco smoke associated with cancers, heart diseases and respiratory conditions as well as the impact of smoking cessation on risk of lung cancer mortality.7-19 In Singapore, due to a committed public administration, tobacco control has been a major public health endeavour since the early 1970s. The national efforts of tobacco control have been described previously.20-23 Briefl y, the National Tobacco Control Programme, now driven by the Health Promotion Board (HPB) uses multi-pronged strategies to curb the demand for and reduce the supply of tobacco. Key strategies include tobacco taxation, legislations (on control