Tobacco control

Tobacco control is a field of international public health science, policy and practice dedicated to addressing tobacco use and thereby reducing the morbidity and mortality it causes. Tobacco control is a priority area for the World Health Organization (WHO), through the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. References to a tobacco control movement may have either positive or negative connotations, both briefly covered here.

Connotations

Positive

The tobacco control field comprises the activity of disparate health, policy and legal research and reform advocacy bodies across the world. These took time to coalesce into a sufficiently organised coalition to advance such measures as the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, and the first article of the first edition of the Tobacco Control journal suggested that developing as a diffusely organised movement was indeed necessary in order to bring about effective action to address the health effects of tobacco use.

Tobacco Control (journal)

Tobacco Control is a quarterly peer-reviewed medical journal covering the health effects of tobacco use, as well as efforts to reduce tobacco use through education and policy and the tobacco industry's activities. It was established in 1992 and is published by BMJ Group. The founding editor-in-chief was Ronald Davis (Michigan Department of Community Health), and the current one is Ruth Malone (University of California San Francisco). According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2014 impact factor of 5.933.

Editors

The following people have served as editor-in-chief of the journal:

Abstracting and indexing

The journal is abstracted and indexed in:

References

External links

Tobacco Control Act of Bhutan 2010

The Tobacco Control Act of Bhutan (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་གི་ཏམ་ཁུ་དམ་འཛིན་བཅའ་ཁྲིམས་ཅན་མ་; Wylie: 'brug-gi tam-khu dam-'dzin bca'-khrims can-ma) was enacted by parliament on June 16, 2010. It regulates tobacco and tobacco products, banning the cultivation, harvesting, production, and sale of tobacco and tobacco products in Bhutan. The act also mandates that the government of Bhutan provide counseling and treatment to facilitate tobacco cessation. Premised on the physical health and well being of the Bhutanese people – important elements of Gross National Happiness – the Tobacco Control Act recognizes the harmful effects of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke on both spiritual and social health.

Long before the enactment of the Tobacco Control Act, Bhutan's government had struggled against tobacco use. In 1916, the first King of Bhutan Ugyen Wangchuck promulgated a ban on the "most filthy and noxious herb, called tobacco." The modern Tobacco Control Act, however, led to controversy because of its harsh penalties. In January 2012, Parliament passed urgent amendments with the effect of greatly increasing permissible amounts of tobacco and reducing penalties, although sale and distribution remain prohibited.