Global Tobacco Control: A Prevention "Best Buy"

This session of Grand Rounds explored the control of tobacco use—the leading preventable cause of premature death and disease worldwide. Currently, approximately 6 million people die each year due to tobacco-related illnesses, a figure expected to increase to more than 8 million a year by 2030. If current global trends continue, tobacco use will cause up to 1 billion deaths in the 21st century.

CDC is the lead US federal agency for comprehensive tobacco prevention and control, and CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health develops, conducts, and supports strategic efforts to protect the public’s health from the harmful effects of tobacco use. An efficient and systematic surveillance mechanism to monitor the epidemic is one of the essential components of a comprehensive tobacco control program.

Global tobacco control has been called a “best buy” in public health. Beyond monitoring of tobacco use and exposure, this session will discuss effective prevention strategies at the personal, population, and policy levels.

Presented By

Joanna Cohen, PhD, MHSc
Director, Institute for Global Tobacco Control
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
“Overview of the Global Tobacco Epidemic”

Samira Asma, DDS, MPH
Branch Chief, Global Tobacco Control Branch
Office on Smoking and Health, CDC
“Tracking the Tobacco Epidemic—Global Surveillance of Tobacco Use as a Tool for Tobacco Control”

Michael Eriksen, ScD
Professor and Director, Institute of Public Health
Georgia State University
“The Tobacco Atlas as a Model for Data to Action”

Facilitated By

Tanja Popovic, MD, PhD, Scientific Director, Public Health Grand Rounds
John Iskander, MD, MPH, Deputy Scientific Director, Public Health Grand Rounds
Susan Laird, MSN, RN, Communications Manager, Public Health Grand Rounds

Additional Resources

• CDC Global Tobacco Control Website