About this Research Topic
World No Tobacco Day takes place on the 31st of May, trying to raise awareness of the dangers of tobacco consumption and the marketing strategies that the tobacco industry uses. This year’s theme highlights that not only does tobacco have a high toll on human health — being a risk factor for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and cancer and ultimately leading to 8 million deaths per year — but it also has a high toll on the environment’s health.
Planting tobacco crops leads to an annual loss of 600 million trees, 22 billion tons of water, and an emission of around 84 million tons of CO2. Furthermore, tobacco plants are usually grown in low and middle-income countries, where farmland is needed to plant local and nutritious foods to nourish their local population.
The tobacco industry playbook has powerful disinformation and marketing strategies. Overall, they spend around 23 million US dollars daily on marketing and target vulnerable populations, such as younger generations with advertisements on TV shows or influencers and farmers with misleading claims about the profit of tobacco crops. In many countries, its actions are directly targeted at political figures or parties to build alliances to hinder the strategies against tobacco.
The pursuit of a tobacco-free world necessitates sustainable strategies that go beyond conventional tobacco control measures. One promising approach gaining traction is the "endgame approach." This strategy focuses on setting a clear target for achieving zero tobacco use and implementing comprehensive policies to reach that goal entailing a multi-pronged approach. By combining evidence-based policies, public awareness campaigns, and collaboration across sectors, we can pave the way towards a sustainable and healthier future free from the devastating impact of tobacco and supporting in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In this spirit, Frontiers is launching a new article collection to coincide with World No Tobacco Day 2023. This occasion not only offers an opportunity to acknowledge and update the effects of tobacco on human health but also to consider its impact on the environment’s health and its associated costs for taxpayers. It is also the occasion to provide evidence of the effect of specific public health policies to countermeasure tobacco consumption.
The Frontiers in Public Health Research Topic aims to address the public-health-specific dimensions of World No Tobacco Day, focusing on effective public health policies used worldwide to control the tobacco epidemic. Topics may include, but are by no means limited to:
• The most recent WHO’s efforts to fight tobacco consumption and the state of art of Tobacco end game.
• The impacts of tobacco on human health and the trend in smoking habits around the world in relationship to public health intervention
• The effect on the health of second-hand smoke and of the new “smokeless” products
• The environmental degradation associated with tobacco farming, the generation and disposal of plastic components (e.g. in e-cigarettes or smokeless tobacco), and toxic products which pollute our oceans, rivers and parks in relationship to local regulations
• The costs for society associated with tobacco consumption or cigarette littering and effective public health policies implemented to make the tobacco industry responsible
• The impacts of the tobacco industry pressures on political parties or figures to contrast initiatives to regulate tobacco use
• New marketing strategies of the tobacco industry, including for newer products, such as heated tobacco products, electronic delivery systems, or electronic non-nicotine delivery systems
Planting tobacco crops leads to an annual loss of 600 million trees, 22 billion tons of water, and an emission of around 84 million tons of CO2. Furthermore, tobacco plants are usually grown in low and middle-income countries, where farmland is needed to plant local and nutritious foods to nourish their local population.
The tobacco industry playbook has powerful disinformation and marketing strategies. Overall, they spend around 23 million US dollars daily on marketing and target vulnerable populations, such as younger generations with advertisements on TV shows or influencers and farmers with misleading claims about the profit of tobacco crops. In many countries, its actions are directly targeted at political figures or parties to build alliances to hinder the strategies against tobacco.
The pursuit of a tobacco-free world necessitates sustainable strategies that go beyond conventional tobacco control measures. One promising approach gaining traction is the "endgame approach." This strategy focuses on setting a clear target for achieving zero tobacco use and implementing comprehensive policies to reach that goal entailing a multi-pronged approach. By combining evidence-based policies, public awareness campaigns, and collaboration across sectors, we can pave the way towards a sustainable and healthier future free from the devastating impact of tobacco and supporting in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In this spirit, Frontiers is launching a new article collection to coincide with World No Tobacco Day 2023. This occasion not only offers an opportunity to acknowledge and update the effects of tobacco on human health but also to consider its impact on the environment’s health and its associated costs for taxpayers. It is also the occasion to provide evidence of the effect of specific public health policies to countermeasure tobacco consumption.
The Frontiers in Public Health Research Topic aims to address the public-health-specific dimensions of World No Tobacco Day, focusing on effective public health policies used worldwide to control the tobacco epidemic. Topics may include, but are by no means limited to:
• The most recent WHO’s efforts to fight tobacco consumption and the state of art of Tobacco end game.
• The impacts of tobacco on human health and the trend in smoking habits around the world in relationship to public health intervention
• The effect on the health of second-hand smoke and of the new “smokeless” products
• The environmental degradation associated with tobacco farming, the generation and disposal of plastic components (e.g. in e-cigarettes or smokeless tobacco), and toxic products which pollute our oceans, rivers and parks in relationship to local regulations
• The costs for society associated with tobacco consumption or cigarette littering and effective public health policies implemented to make the tobacco industry responsible
• The impacts of the tobacco industry pressures on political parties or figures to contrast initiatives to regulate tobacco use
• New marketing strategies of the tobacco industry, including for newer products, such as heated tobacco products, electronic delivery systems, or electronic non-nicotine delivery systems
Keywords: world no tobacco day, tobacco industry playbook, tobacco crops, adverse health effects of tobacco, environmental degradation tobacco farming
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
