Tobacco section

This part of overal Jurnal is devolved to tabacco. Tobacco smoking is one of the major factors that globally threatens human health and causes premature mortality. Epidemiological evidence demonstrates that tobacco smoking is widespread in Poland, affecting 8 million people, and indeed also throughout the world, where over 1 billion people smoke, constituting one quarter of all adult population [1]. Upon analyzing people’s attitudes towards the consumption of tobacco products, this has varied over time. Cigarette smoking has risen stepwise from the end of World War II up to the 1970s and 80s. During this time, lung cancer mortality was at its highest. However, a decline was observed in cigarette smoking in the mid-1990s [2]. Changing attitudes in Poles arose from the passing of legislation and introducing anti-smoking health programmes, along with various educational measures taken that were focused on the adverse health consequences of smoking.
On May 2016, Polish anti-smoking legislation passed its 20th anniversary. In order to present the priorities of its anti-smoking policies over this time, the Polish Ministry of Health together with the Health Promotion Foundation and the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate held a series of conferences and seminars for promoting its anti-nicotine campaigns. This was the subject of a conference report by Mateusz Zatonski, entitled Report from the Conference on a Smoke-free Poland, Ministry of Health, Warsaw, Poland, 18 May 2016 (pp. 111-119). On a global scale, a Framework Convention on Tobacco Control meeting was held in India, November 2016, which was reported by Jeffrey Drope and Michał Stoklosa; see Report from the WHO FCTC Seventh Session of the Conference of Parties (pp. 128-129).
In this current issue of the Journal of Health Inequalities, we would like to draw your attention to an article by Ewa Binczyk concerning a book by Naomi Oreskes and Eric M. Conway entitled “Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming”, see Controversies that have been fabricated. From tobacco smoke to global warming (pp. 133-134). The book presents the controversies over global warming, smoking tobacco, acid rain, DDT, and the hole in the ozone layer. This book has been recognised by many critics as being the best science book of 2010.

Disclosure

Authors report no conflict of interest.

References

1. Raport Światowej Organizacji Zdrowia na temat globalnej epidemii tytoniu 2008, MPOWER, Genewa [World Health Organization report on the global tobacco epidemic, 2008 MPOWER, Geneva]. WHO, Geneva 2009. Available from: http://www.who.int/tobacco/mpower/mpower_report_global_control_2008.pdf (accessed 14 December 2016).
2. Zatoński M, Zatoński WA, Przewoźniak K, et al. The significance and impact of the Polish Anti-tobacco Law. J Health Inequal 2016; 2:32-35. Available from: https://doi.org/10.5114/jhi.2016.61417.