Over the past two decades a wealth of research findings have pointed to nicotine as the key pharmacological factor underlying tobacco use. The 1988 report of the US Surgeon General identified cigarette smoking as nicotine addiction (1); the Royal College of Physicians similarly concluded that...

Scientific evidence has firmly established that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke (SHS), a pollutant that causes serious illnesses in adults and children. There is also indisputable evidence that implementing 100% smoke-free environments is the only effective way to...

In 1998, the Australian Government announced a major reform of Australia’s overall tax system. The previous system was characterized as out of date (it included a range of historically justified but now anachronistic taxes), unfair, discouraging of exports and investment, ineffective and...

For over 100 years taxation has been a common method of revenue collection in New Zealand and the major policy instrument for reducing tobacco use since the comprehensive tobacco control programme began in 19851. Tobacco tax rates have been raised once or twice a year since that time2. A...

Norway constitutes the western part of the Scandinavian peninsula with a population of 4.5 million. The country does not grow tobacco, but has a tobacco industry with a long tradition. The standard of living is high; unemployment is low representing, in April-June 2002, about 4.0% of the labour...

Executive summary Scientific evidence has firmly established that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke (SHS), a pollutant that causes serious illnesses in adults and children. There is also indisputable evidence that implementing 100% smoke-free environments is the only...

The past ten years have witnessed a major turnabout in government policy on tobacco control in South Africa. Within a relatively short time, government policy has changed from complete apathy to one where the tobacco control measures are regarded as some of the most pro-gressive in the world....

In England (as in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as a whole) smoking prevalence in adults (aged 16 and over) has been falling in both men and women since the 1970s (1). During the 1990s, however, this decline levelled off, as the diagram below illustrates. Currently, in...

A large body of evidence demonstrates that tobacco companies use a wide range of tactics to interfere with tobacco control. Such strategies include direct and indirect political lobbying and campaign contributions, financing of research, attempting to affect the course of regulatory and policy...

Introduction Tobacco use is the leading cause of death and disease in Australia. Each year nearly 20 000 Australians die and more than 150 000 are hospitalized due to tobacco-related illnesses (1). The economic and social costs of tobacco use in Australia are estimated at $AU 12,736.2 million...