Continuing Challenges to Tobacco Control in China: Findings from the ITC China Project

This podcast debates the findings from the International Tobacco Control (ITC) China Project. Simon Chapman, Professor School of Public Health University of Sydney, interviews Professor Geoffrey Fong, University of Waterloo in Canada, Principal Investigator of the ITC China Project; Dr. Angela Pratt, WHO China Tobacco Free Initiative representative, Beijing; and Dr. Judith Mackay, Director of the Asian Consultancy on Tobacco Control and Senior Advisor, World Lung Foundation/Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, Hong Kong. TIMELINE OF THE PODCAST: • 02:45 – Overall view of the ITC Project and particularly of the ITC China Project: “An extraordinary time and opportunity… There wasn’t any kind of evidence system capable of evaluating the upcoming tobacco control policies that we knew were going to be implemented throughout the world”; • 07:10 – Some of the findings of the second supplement of ITC China Project: “The missed opportunities on warnings on the tobacco packages have affected millions of smokers”; “China’s effort on smoke-free laws have only decreased smoking very, very modestly”; • 11:25 – The first years of the Xi Jinping’s government: “Tobacco control policies in China had a tipping point two years ago… ”; • 15:00 – “Encouraging times in Beijing: The strongest tobacco control law to date”; • 18:10 – “The ITC Project evidence reaches the decision makers in China”; • 21:45 – ITC’s next projects: Abu Dhabi and a project across Canada, USA and UK; • 25:30 – How quickly the change in tobacco control policies will happen in China?

Read the full supplement here: http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/24/Suppl_4.toc