From the Executive Director

I recently returned from the World Conference on Tobacco OR Health, a gathering of nearly 5,000 tobacco control advocates, public health professionals, and academics from around the world. The conference, which was held in D.C., looked at tobacco control from a global perspective and focused on upcoming challenges in the developing world.

The most sobering statistic shared at the conference - which has been widely reported in the media - is that if current trends continue, tobacco use may kill 1 billion people during the coming century. Most of those deaths will occur in the developing world, where the tobacco industry is aggressively expanding and targeting female populations in particular. (The American Cancer Society has released the second edition of The Tobacco Atlas, an incredibly useful and interesting compilation of worldwide tobacco-related statistics. It is available online here.)

[ More ]