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...

Worldwide, more than 1 billion people use tobacco, resulting in about 6 million deaths per year. The tobacco industry's documented history of subverting control efforts required innovative approaches by WHO--led by Gro Harlem Brundtland--including invocation of its constitutional authority to develop treaties. In 2003, WHO member states adopted the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (W...

The business of selling cigarettes is increasingly concentrated in the hands of five tobacco companies that collectively control almost 90% of the world's cigarette market, four of which are publicly traded corporations. The economic activities of these cigarette manufacturers can be monitored through their reports to shareholders and other public documents. Reports for 2008 show that the reven...

BACKGROUND The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control calls for the elimination of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. To test whether tobacco packaging functions as advertising by communicating attractive and distinctive brand attributes, we explored how young adult smokers and non-smokers interpreted familiar and unfamiliar tobacco brands. METHODS We conducted an on-line survey...

BACKGROUND The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) bans all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. The comprehensiveness of this ban has yet to be tested by online social networking media such as Facebook. In this paper, the activities of employees of the transnational tobacco company, British American Tobacco, (BAT) on Facebook and the...

AIMS The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) requires nations that have ratified the convention to ban all tobacco advertising and promotion. In the face of these restrictions, tobacco packaging has become the key promotional vehicle for the tobacco industry to interest smokers and potential smokers in tobacco products. This paper reviews available research into the probable impact o...

This paper describes the conceptual model that underlies the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (ITC Project), whose mission is to measure the psychosocial and behavioural impact of key policies of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) among adult smokers, and in some countries, among adult non-smokers and among youth. The evaluation framework utilises multiple...

Six years after the Third Session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) adopted strong implementation guidelines for the treaty’s Article 5.3, that article’s promise for protecting tobacco control policymaking from tobacco industry interference remains almost entirely unrealised. While some government agencies, mostly healthfocused, have inst...