The Global Tobacco Epidemic

This paper focuses on the first century of the global tobacco epidemic and its current status, reviewing the current and projected future of the global tobacco epidemic and the steps that are in progress to end it. In the United States and many countries of western Europe, tobacco consumption peaked during the 1960s and 1970s and declined as tobacco control programs were initiated, motivated by the evidence indicting smoking as a leading cause of disease. Despite this policy advancement and the subsequent reductions in tobacco consumption, the global tobacco epidemic continued to grow in the later years of the twentieth century, as the multinational companies sought new markets to replace those shrinking in high-income countries. In response, the World Health Organization developed between 2000 and 2004 its first public health treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which entered into force in 2005. An accompanying package of interventions has been implemented. New approaches to tobacco control, including plain packaging and single representation of brands, have been implemented by Australia and Uruguay, respectively, but have been challenged by the tobacco industry

Review of Policy, Regulatory, and Organizational Frameworks of Environment and Health in Ethiopia

Background: Ethiopia produced its Environmental Health Situational Analysis and Needs Assessment (SANA) report in 2010 as part of the global endeavor to characterize and underscore the importance of connecting health and environment. The assessment methods used in SANA 2010 were updated, replicated and used in this SABNA. with a focus on air pollution, occupational safety and health, and climate change.Objectives: The purpose of the review was to examine national policies and identify gaps in regulations and organizational arrangements that determine Ethiopia’s ability to mitigate and eventually prevent the health impacts of air pollution, occupational hazards, and climate change.Methods: The national policy and regulatory documents were reviewed. Literature was identified through electronic searches. Hard copies of past reports and policies were reviewed whenever necessary. A semi-structured guideline was used to conduct in-depth interviews aimed at identifying gaps and needs.Results: The Constitution of Ethiopia has policy provisions related to air pollution, occupational safety and health (OSH), and climate change and health. Proclamation No. 300/2002 on Environmental Pollution Control specifies ambient air quality standards and allowable emissions. However, there were no documents that outlined the national or regional strategies that the ministries and agencies could adopt to translate existing policies, legal provisions, or guidelines for air pollution into practical programs. In the same way, a national OSH policy was lacking at the time this review was made on how occupational safety and health should be handled nationally or at lower governing levels as required by the International Occupation Safety and Health and Working Environment Convention No. 155/1981. Ethiopia is a signatory of this Convention.Conclusions and Recommendations: The results of the situational analysis indicate that there are cross-cutting gaps in the various sectors. Among these, addressing the critical shortage of skilled personnel is an urgent priority. Most stakeholders face acute shortages of professionals and poor retention mechanisms. It is therefore important toa) design interventions that focus on capacity building in, for example, aligning curricula with specific needs of ministries, andb) equip professionals with the necessary technical skills.In addition, the results indicate that policies and regulations exist in theory, but in practice, there are inadequate implementation strategies to encourage adherence and enforcement of the regulations and policies

Defining Tobacco Regulatory Science Competencies

In 2013, the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration funded a network of 14 Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science (TCORS) with a mission that included research and training. A cross-TCORS Panel was established to define tobacco regulatory science (TRS) competencies to help harmonize and guide their emerging educational programs. The purpose of this paper is to describe the Panel’s work to develop core TRS domains and competencies

Global health education: a pilot in trans-disciplinary, digital instruction

Background: The development of new global health academic programs provides unique opportunities to create innovative educational approaches within and across universities. Recent evidence suggests that digital media technologies may provide feasible and cost-effective alternatives to traditional classroom instruction; yet, many emerging global health academic programs lag behind in the utilization of modern technologies. Objective: We created an inter-departmental University of Southern California (USC) collaboration to develop and implement a course focused on digital media and global health. Design: Course curriculum was based on core tenants of modern education: multi-disciplinary, technologically advanced, learner-centered, and professional application of knowledge. Student and university evaluations were reviewed to qualitatively assess course satisfaction and educational outcomes. Results: ‘New Media for Global Health’ ran for 18 weeks in the Spring 2012 semester with N=41 students (56.1% global health and 43.9% digital studies students). The course resulted in a number of high quality global health-related digital media products available at http://iml420.wordpress.com/. Challenges confronted at USC included administrative challenges related to co-teaching and frustration from students conditioned to a rigid system of teacher-led learning within a specific discipline. Quantitative and qualitative course evaluations reflected positive feedback for the course instructors and mixed reviews for the organization of the course. Conclusion: The development of innovative educational programs in global health requires on-going experimentation and information sharing across departments and universities. Digital media technologies may have implications for future efforts to improve global health education

The FCTC Turns 10: Lessons From the Fist Decade

The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) stands as a landmark approach to addressing a global health problem. It represents the first time the World Health Organization (WHO) used its constitutional right to negotiate an international law and the first time the Member States of WHO agreed to a collective response to chronic, non-communicable diseases. This paper draws lessons from the FCTC’s first decade in force and explores what aspects of the FCTC experience can inform future efforts to address other disease epidemics driven by corporate activity, such as alcohol and food

Engaging youth in global health and social justice: a decade of experience teaching a high school summer course

Background Education and training in global health and social justice is crucial to ensuring the next generation of health professionals are poised to tackle the pressing issues of our time. Objectives To develop and implement an intensive summer course on global health and social justice for high school students at the University of Southern California. Methods This paper reviews the course aims and curriculum, its implementation both onsite and online, and reports on student course evaluations and long-term student outcomes. Results Student satisfaction with the program was extremely high, which endured when the course went virtual during the COVID-19 pandemic. The most popular elements of the course included interactive, game-based activities and guest speakers. Many students reported that the course motivated them to pursue higher education and careers in global health or related fields. Conclusions More universities should consider offering summer programs or other extension programs targeting high school students in order to meet the increasing demand for global health education. Recommendations for implementing global health courses for younger learners include having an interdisciplinary focus with a range of topics and diverse perspectives; provision of scholarships to allow low-income students and students from abroad to participate; prioritizing the integration of active learning and experiential educational opportunities; and incorporating debriefing and reflection as integral parts of learning

International law, national policies and youth smoking: an examination of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

Background The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) addresses a wide range of issues including protection from exposure to secondhand smoke and advertising, promotion and sponsorship. The FCTC represents a minimum set of tobacco control policies, although the treaty explicitly encourages countries to go above and beyond these measures. Despite its lack of mandatory provisions. FCTC ratification and its timing may be good proxy for a country's commitment to tobacco control. Our first objective is to assess the impact of the FCTC on global youth tobacco use. Our second objective is to explore two areas that are amenable to policy change: secondhand smoke and advertising. Methods We used pooled repeated-cross-sectional data from youth surveys conducted between 1999 and 2015 in more than 150 low- and middle-income countries and multilevel analyses to account for the nesting of students in schools and schools in countries. First, we examined the association between three outcome variables (smoking susceptibility, defined as the absence of a firm decision not to smoke, current smoking defined as 30-day smoking prevalence and a five-point scale of smoking uptake) and various indicators of the FCTC implementation. Second, we examined the association between exposure to secondhand smoke and advertising and indicators of the FCTC implementation. Results We found considerable heterogeneity in the association between different measures of youth smoking and indicators of the FCTC implementation. On the whole, we found clearer associations between exposure to secondhand smoke and advertising and indicators of the FCTC implementation. Conclusions A number of studies have examined changes in the implementation of tobacco control measures since the ratification of the FCTC but few studies have examined the effect of the FCTC on tobacco use; fewer still have used pre- and post-FCTC data. More research that use such data is needed