Addressing three central questions of legal policy, this is an interesting and comprehensive analysis of the need to control and regulate tobacco consumption. The core issues of the book are litigation vs. regulation with a comparative analysis of the US and European approaches; the challenge to regulate tobacco as a lawful product within constitutional limits to promote the reduction of risks to health and the extent to which consumers should be entrusted with information to make their own informed choices. Suggesting dialogue and transparency in policy development, this book covers advertising, psychology, ethics, economics and health in addition to the central debate about the litigation and regulation of tobacco and the role of consumer protection law and private law.

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in United States, causing more than 440,000 deaths annually and resulting in $193 billion in health-related economic losses each year-$96 billion in direct medical costs and $97 billion in lost productivity. Since the first U.S. Surgeon General's report on smoking in 1964, more than 29 Surgeon General's reports, drawing on data from thousands of studies, have documented the overwhelming and conclusive biologic, epidemiologic, behavioral, and pharmacologic evidence that tobacco use is deadly. This evidence base links tobacco use to the development of multiple types of cancer and other life-threatening conditions, including cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Smoking accounts for at least 30 percent of all cancer deaths, and 80 percent of lung cancer deaths. Despite the widespread agreement on the dangers of tobacco use and considerable success in reducing tobacco use prevalence from over 40 percent at the time of the 1964 Surgeon General's report to less than 20 percent today, recent progress in reducing tobacco use has slowed. An estimated 18.9 percent of U.S. adults smoke cigarettes, nearly one in four high school seniors smoke, and 13 percent of high school males use smokeless tobacco products. In recognition that progress in combating cancer will not be fully achieved without addressing the tobacco problem, the National Cancer Policy Forum of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) convened a public workshop, Reducing Tobacco-Related Cancer Incidence and Mortality, June 11-12, 2012 in Washington, DC. In opening remarks to the workshop participants, planning committee chair Roy Herbst, professor of medicine and of pharmacology and chief of medical oncology at Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital, described the goals of the workshop, which were to examine the current obstacles to tobacco control and to discuss potential policy, outreach, and treatment strategies that could overcome these obstacles and reduce tobacco-related cancer incidence and mortality. Experts explored a number of topics, including: the changing demographics of tobacco users and the changing patterns of tobacco product use; the influence of tobacco use on cancer incidence and cancer treatment outcomes; tobacco dependence and cessation programs; federal and state level laws and regulations to curtail tobacco use; tobacco control education, messaging, and advocacy; financial and legal challenges to tobacco control efforts; and research and infrastructure needs to support tobacco control strategies, reduce tobacco related cancer incidence, and improve cancer patient outcomes. Reducing Tobacco-Related Cancer Incidence and Mortality summarizes the workshop.

The nation has made tremendous progress in reducing tobacco use during the past 40 years. Despite extensive knowledge about successful interventions, however, approximately one-quarter of American adults still smoke. Tobacco-related illnesses and death place a huge burden on our society. Ending the Tobacco Problem generates a blueprint for the nation in the struggle to reduce tobacco use. The report reviews effective prevention and treatment interventions and considers a set of new tobacco control policies for adoption by federal and state governments. Carefully constructed with two distinct parts, the book first provides background information on the history and nature of tobacco use, developing the context for the policy blueprint proposed in the second half of the report. The report documents the extraordinary growth of tobacco use during the first half of the 20th century as well as its subsequent reversal in the mid-1960s (in the wake of findings from the Surgeon General). It also reviews the addictive properties of nicotine, delving into the factors that make it so difficult for people to quit and examines recent trends in tobacco use. In addition, an overview of the development of governmental and nongovernmental tobacco control efforts is provided. After reviewing the ethical grounding of tobacco control, the second half of the book sets forth to present a blueprint for ending the tobacco problem. The book offers broad-reaching recommendations targeting federal, state, local, nonprofit and for-profit entities. This book also identifies the benefits to society when fully implementing effective tobacco control interventions and policies.

Alcohol use by young people is extremely dangerous - both to themselves and society at large. Underage alcohol use is associated with traffic fatalities, violence, unsafe sex, suicide, educational failure, and other problem behaviors that diminish the prospects of future success, as well as health risks â€" and the earlier teens start drinking, the greater the danger. Despite these serious concerns, the media continues to make drinking look attractive to youth, and it remains possible and even easy for teenagers to get access to alcohol. Why is this dangerous behavior so pervasive? What can be done to prevent it? What will work and who is responsible for making sure it happens? Reducing Underage Drinking addresses these questions and proposes a new way to combat underage alcohol use. It explores the ways in which may different individuals and groups contribute to the problem and how they can be enlisted to prevent it. Reducing Underage Drinking will serve as both a game plan and a call to arms for anyone with an investment in youth health and safety.

This booklet for schools, medical personnel, and parents contains highlights from the 2012 Surgeon General's report on tobacco use among youth and teens (ages 12 through 17) and young adults (ages 18 through 25). The report details the causes and the consequences of tobacco use among youth and young adults by focusing on the social, environmental, advertising, and marketing influences that encourage youth and young adults to initiate and sustain tobacco use. This is the first time tobacco data on young adults as a discrete population have been explored in detail. The report also highlights successful strategies to prevent young people from using tobacco.

Tobacco smoking is a major public health issue worldwide. Smoking causes more than a quarter of all cancer deaths, with nearly 80% of deaths from lung cancer, 80% of deaths from bronchitis and emphysema and almost one fifth of deaths from cardiovascular disease. The role of tobacco smoke in the development of cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases is widely discussed in the chapters of this book. It is responsible for many preventable diseases, contributes to a large number of premature deaths and accounts for enormous economic costs. The chapters in this book review a variety of topics related to the sociodemographic characteristics of people consuming tobacco, tobacco product promotion and merchandising consequences of smoking on health, the studied mechanism of damage and the different interventions promoted for tobacco control. The mechanisms by which cigarette smoke affects health are diverse. Thousands of chemical components -- mainly toxins and carcinogens -- are part of tobacco smoke. These components could act through specific or nonspecific mechanisms in the development of cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory disease. Common pathways include DNA damage, gene mutations, vasomotor dysfunction and oxidative stress, among others. The effects on health of first-hand and second-hand smoke exposure have been widely studied, and there is growing evidence regarding consequences of third-hand smoke exposure. The constituents, dynamic transformation and distribution of third-hand smoke are a fruitful area of study, as much as the quantification of its exposure. In this book, many useful indicators of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, ranging from surrogate indicators to direct measurements of the components that reflect dose are analysed. Advances in this field can provide useful information on the extent and effects of smoking, implementing and assessing tobacco control policies. Furthermore, the World Health Organization developed a framework for an international treaty that provides evidence-based recommendations for health promotion and tobacco control. After more than ten years of its implementation, the effectiveness of different strategies adopted worldwide is analysed and reflections on the new challenges of its implementation are presented. In this book, smoking is reviewed pertaining to the effects and implications for health, as well as the current challenges on implementation and evaluation of tobacco control interventions.

Due to its emotive nature, the debate about smoking has always been (and still is) a topic that is capable of polarizing opinions, including those of legal scholars. As a result the relevant literature, whether legal or scientific, tends to be inherently biased either against or in favour of tobacco products. The Tobacco Challenge by Professor Geraint Howells, one of the leading experts in European Consumer Law, provides a welcome and notable exception to this trend. This book offers a balanced account of the legal, moral and public health challenges facing governmental efforts aimed at curbing tobacco consumption. Yet its merits go well beyond that of offering an objective examination and reconstruction of such a complex area of law and policy. Howells's analysis is also refreshing, innovative and brave enough to challenge some of the main tenets of the health community's dominant thinking. Although repetitive at times, this book deserves praise for revamping the moribund legal debate on tobacco regulation in Europe and beyond. Indeed, as the tobacco control discourse has been hijacked by the imperative of 'de-normalization', i.e. to change the broad social norms around using tobacco, the opportunities for the legal system to pause, question and contribute to actual tobacco control efforts have been significantly reduced in recent times.