The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is an economic and geopolitical cooperation among eight member nations namely Sri Lanka that are primarily located in South Asia continent (1). There is an urgent need to formulate a common oral health policy feasible for SAARC nations. The oral health policy for SAARC nations should rely on the preventive, interceptive and rehabilita...

Tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of death worldwide. In particular, people with mental illness are disproportionately affected with high smoking prevalence; they account for more than 200,000 of the 520,000 tobacco-attributable deaths in the United States annually and die on average 25 years prematurely. Our review aims to provide an update on smoking in the mentally ill. We re...

BACKGROUND Although public and media attention has focused on the federal role in the regulation of tobacco products, state government remains an important arena for changing tobacco control policies. Lobbying state officials by public health and the tobacco industry is a commonly used mechanism to influence public policy. METHODS Major bills of the 2007-2008 and 2009-2010 Wisconsin legislati...

Many modalities of tobacco use prevention programming have been implemented including various policy regulations (tax increases, warning labels, limits on access, smoke-free policies, and restrictions on marketing), mass media programming, school-based classroom education, family involvement, and involvement of community agents (i.e., medical, social, political). The present manuscript provides...

This study compared first and most recent use situations of adolescent smokeless tobacco experimenters with those of adolescent cigarette experimenters. Structured, open-ended interviews were conducted with 320 seventh and tenth grade youths in 16 Southern California schools. Students were categorized as nonusers (those who had never experimented with any tobacco product), minimal experimenters...

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is reissuing a final rule restricting the sale, distribution, and use of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. As required by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act), FDA is issuing a final rule that is identical to the provisions of the final rule on cigarettes and smokeless tobacco published by FDA in 1996, with certain re...

Knowledge concerning developmental trajectories of tobacco use has until recently been limited to smoking. We utilized information on 960 adolescents who participated in the BROMS cohort study, with follow-up between the ages of 11 and 18 years. Factors related to personal monetary allowance, psychosocial factors and alcohol drinking were used to predict individual probability of progression of...

BACKGROUND Adolescent tobacco use is a major public health problem. However, there is little information about the impact of tobacco advertising and availability near schools on adolescent tobacco use in India. METHODS The various tobacco products and brands available in outlets within 100 meters of two high schools in an Indian town were identified. A stratified random sample of 172 particip...