The Global Fight Against Cancer

Leading Cancer Control Experts Issue Call for the Inclusion of Cancer and Other Noncommunicable Diseases in the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals

John R. Seffrin, PhD, chief executive officer, and Nathan Grey, national vice president, International Affairs, American Cancer Society, have joined other leading global cancer control experts in a call for the inclusion of cancer and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Their views appear in a joint editorial in the September 2009 issue of CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, a peer-reviewed journal published by the American Cancer Society. The authors describe the growing global threat of NCDs, particularly to low- and middle-income countries. Eighty percent of NCDs worldwide occur in these countries, and mortality rates there due to NCDs are rising, threatening to overwhelm health systems ill-prepared for such a growing pandemic. The MDGs are recognized by many as the world’s development and public health agenda. Placing NCDs on this agenda would help to balance growing public health disparities and reduce the economic costs and personal suffering associated with these diseases. Other co-authors of the editorial include David Hill, PhD, president, International Union Against Cancer (UICC); Werner Burkhart, deputy director general, International Atomic Energy Authority; Ian Magrath, MB, BS, FRCP, FRCPath, president, International Network for Cancer Treatment and Research (INCTR); Rajendra A. Badwe, MD, MBBS, director, Tata Memorial Centre; Twalib Ngoma, MD, president, African Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC); Alejandro Mohar, MD, director general, Mexican National Cancer Institute.  
 
To read the editorial in the journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, please click on this link.

New Edition of 'The Tobacco Atlas' Launched Today at Press Conference in Mumbai, India

(This first-hand account of today’s press conference was provided by Cassandra Welch, Director, International Tobacco Control Programs, American Cancer Society. Photos from the press conference are included below this entry.)

Today at the 14th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health in Mumbai, India, The Tobacco Atlas, 3rd Edition was launched at a press conference in a room filled with reporters and conference participants. Forty print and eight broadcast reporters attended the event, which included presentations by John R. Seffrin, PhD, chief executive officer, American Cancer Society; Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss, The Honorable Union Health Minister, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India; Peter Baldini, chief executive officer, World Lung Foundation; World Health Organization India representative Dr. S. Hayabeb, and Tobacco Atlas co-authors. Dr. Seffrin was interviewed by Star TV, a leading broadcast outlet in India. Other media outlets included leading India newspapers like The Hindu and The Financial Express. Times of India, another leading India newspaper, reported on the new Tobacco Atlas over the weekend.

Speakers at the press conference holding copies of The Tobacco Atlas, 3rd Edition. From left to right: Peter Baldini, chief executive officer, World Lung Foundation; Judith Mackay, MD, co-author, senior adviser at World Lung Foundation; Hana Ross, PhD, Co-Author and deputy director of the International Tobacco Evidence Network, American Cancer Society; Honorable Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss, The Honorable Union Health Minister, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India; Dr. S. J. Habayeb, World Health Organization representative to India; Dr. Michael Eriksen, co-author, director of the Institute of Public Health at Georgia State University and editor of Health Education Research.

From left to right: Peter Baldini, chief executive officer, World Lung Foundation; Honorable Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss, The Honorable Union Health Minister, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India; John R. Seffrin, PhD, chief executive officer, American Cancer Society.

Journalists and other guests watching presentations in the press conference room.

Report from Day One of the 14th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health (WCTOH)

(This is a first-hand account of the conference proceedings from Tom Glynn, PhD, Director, Cancer Science and Trends and Director, International Cancer Control, American Cancer Society. Please see related photos below.)

Opening ceremony of the WCTOH was about 90 minutes long. Speakers included Conference Presidents Prakash Gupta and Padmini Somani, the Governor of the State of Maharashtra (where Mumbai is located), World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan (via videotape), and Indian Health and Family Welfare Minister Abumani Ramadoss. Traditional and modern Indian music was played by the Indian Navy Orchestra, and two traditional dance programs were performed, one including children served by the Salaam Bombay Foundation.

Various statistics regarding smoking were cited during the ceremony. The thrill and appropriateness of having the WCTOH in an emerging economic nation for the first time in 12 years was celebrated. A long list of organizations were thanked, with particular notice given to the American Cancer Society, both for its support in making this conference a success (both by providing resources and advice based on our previous conference experience) and for its support of all the previous WCTOHs, starting with the first one in New York City in 1967.

American Cancer Society staff and volunteers, from left to right: Van Wolf, chair, National Board of Directors, American Cancer Society; Terry Fontham, MPH, DrPH, president, American Cancer Society; Cassandra Welch, director, International Tobacco Control Programs, American Cancer Society

 

Logo for the 14th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

New Edition of The Tobacco Atlas, Cataloguing Catastrophic Toll of Tobacco Worldwide, to Be Launched on Monday, March 9

 

Front cover of The Tobacco Atlas, 3rd Edition

The American Cancer Society and World Lung Foundation will hold a press conference on Monday, March 9, at the 14th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health in Mumbai, India, to launch the new book The Tobacco Atlas, 3rd Edition. An online, interactive version of the document will also be released that day at TobaccoAtlas.org. PDF files from the book will be available soon through www.cancer.org/international. This comprehensive volume of research, published by the American Cancer Society, and its accompanying website, graphically display how tobacco is devastating both global health and economies. Tobacco is projected to kill six million people and drain $500 billion from global economy each year. More than 80 percent of deaths will occur in low- and middle-income countries. 

Speakers at the press conference will include some of the book’s co-authors and other distinguished guests: Honorable Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss, The Honorable Union Health Minister, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India; John R. Seffrin, PhD, Chief Executive Officer, American Cancer Society; Peter Baldini, Chief Executive Officer, World Lung Foundation; Michael Eriksen, ScD, Book Co-author, Professor and Founding Director of the Institute of Public Health at Georgia State University; Hana Ross, PhD, Book Co-author, Economist and Strategic Director of International Tobacco Control Research at the American Cancer Society; and Judith Mackay, MD, Book Co-author, Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of Edinburgh and London, Special Advisor at World Lung Foundation, and Senior Policy advisor to the World Health Organization.   

American Cancer Society Co-produces New Edition of 'How Do You Sell Death?'

The American Cancer Society's international tobacco control team, working with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the Framework Convention Alliance, launched an update of the publication How Do You Sell Death? on November 17 at the Third Conference of the Parties held in Durban, South Africa. This publication calls attention to the tobacco industry’s aggressive media assaults. Every year, the industry spends billions of dollars around the globe on advertising, sponsorships, and other types of promotion. Manipulative advertising tactics have exacerbated the health consequences of tobacco use, which is responsible for 5 million deaths every year. Using graphic images taken from cities all around the world, How Do You Sell Death? creates a visual testimony of the tobacco industry's tactics to lure new smokers to the habit, in spite of countries’ attempts to curtail the industry's advertising efforts. This publication is available online in six languages through the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids international resource center (This link leads to a Web page that displays a link to the English version in PDF format. Other language versions are available through language links at the top of this page).