From the editors

Dear Colleagues,

We are proud to announce that on 7^th October, during the ceremony of the academic year inauguration, the Scien­tific Editor-in-Chief, Professor Witold Zatoński, received an honourable scientific distinction. He was awarded the title of doctor honoris causa of the University of Kalisz. The reviewers of Professor Zatoński’s scientific achievements were as follows: Professor Richard Peto, one of the most famous epidemiologists in the world from the University of Oxford, UK, and Professor Marek Krawczyk, Clinical Department of General, Transplantation and Liver Surgery, Medical University of Warsaw, and former rector of this university.
In his acceptance speech, Professor Zatoński emphasised that his greatest achievement in life was identifying, stopping, and reversing the trend of lung cancer incidence and mortality in Poland – cancer, which is the most important indicator of tobacco-related disease burden. Thanks to the preparation and implementation of programs reducing the prevalence of tobacco smoking, cigarette sales in Poland fell from 100 billion to 40 billion pieces between 1980 and 2016. Professor Zatoński emphasised that primary prevention is one of the most powerful tools of public health.
On 8-9 October, the next annual World Calisia Conference on Family Health took place in Kalisz, Poland. We have devoted a significant part of the present “Journal of Health Inequalities” issue to summaries of contributions from the conference. The conference was aimed at revisiting challenges to public health in Poland with special attention to themes like cancer, alcohol-related diseases, mortality due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the increase of novel nicotine product use. Particularly worth recommending is the “Report from the 4^th Calisia Conference on Family Health, Kalisz, Poland, 7-9 October 2024” (pp. 107-120), which summarises the conference, draws attention to the most important areas of public health in Poland, and provides conclusions from each session in the form of bullet points.
The authors of conference contributions include world-famous scientists and friends with whom we have the honour of collaborating, such as Professor Leif Aarø (Department of Health Promotion, Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Bergen, Norway), Dr Mark Parascandola (National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, USA), Claire Gilham and Professor Julian Peto (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine,...


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