Tobacco control
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To estimate the prevalence and the socioeconomic and demographic correlates of tobacco consumption in India. ⋯ The findings of the study highlight that an agenda to improve health outcomes among the poor in India must include effective interventions to control tobacco use. Failure to do so would most likely result in doubling the burden of diseases-both communicable and non-communicable-among India's teeming poor. There is a need for periodical surveys using more consistent definitions of tobacco use and eliciting information on different types of tobacco consumed. The study also suggests a need to adjust the prevalence estimates based on household informants.
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Review
Adolescent and young adult tobacco prevention and cessation: current status and future directions.
To summarise the evidence on adolescent and young adult prevention and cessation, and provide future directions for research. ⋯ School based curricula alone have been generally ineffective in the long term in preventing adolescents from initiating tobacco use but are effective when combined with other approaches such as media and smoke-free policies. Prevention research should consider multiple approaches and the social conditions that influence the development of youth problem behaviours including tobacco use. Because youth smoking cessation has been understudied to date, scientifically rigorous adolescent smoking cessation studies need to be conducted with attention to high risk smokers and less than daily smokers. Tobacco prevention and cessation for young adults needs focused attention. Prevention and cessation programmes need to address other tobacco products in addition to cigarettes.
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This statement is an updated version of one released by the same authors in February 2003. The statement was produced to follow up the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) Tobacco Advisory Group report "Protecting smokers, saving lives: the case for a tobacco and nicotine regulatory authority", which argued for an evidence based regulatory approach to smokeless tobacco and harm reduction and posed a series of questions that regulators must address in relation to smokeless tobacco. The purpose of this statement is to provide arguments of fact and principle to follow the RCP's report and to outline the public health case for changing existing European Union (EU) regulation in this area. A review of regulation in relation to harm reduction and regulation of tobacco products other than cigarettes is required in Article 11 of EU directive 2001/37/EC, and this is a contribution towards forming a consensus in the European public health community about what policy the EU should adopt in the light of this review, or following ongoing legal action that may potentially strike out the existing regulation altogether. ⋯ We believe that the EU policy on smokeless tobacco should adapt to new scientific knowledge and that the European Commission should bring forward proposals to amend or replace Article 8 of directive 2001/37/EC with a new regulatory framework. Canada has developed testing regimens for tobacco constituents and these could be readily adapted to the European situation. A review of EU policy in this area is required no later than December 2004, and we believe the Commission should expedite the part of its review that deals with harm reduction and regulation of tobacco products other than cigarettes so as to reconsider its policy on smokeless tobacco. We held this view before Swedish Match brought its legal proceedings to challenge EU legislation and we will continue to hold these views if its action fails.
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To document the history of visits to Australia by tobacco industry sponsored scientists and news media reports about smoking and health matters generated by their visits. ⋯ These media reports are likely to have influenced many who were exposed to them to believe that the evidence against smoking remained equivocal.