Smoking regulation and tobacco control are not merely domestic issues, said Mary Ellen Wewers, Ph.D, M.P.H., chair of the ATS Tobacco Control Committee. “The ATS is also involved in how we can take a comprehensive approach by partnering with nations around the globe in addressing tobacco dependence,” she said.
Dr. Wewers, who serves as professor at The Ohio State University College of Public Health in Columbus, will co-chair symposium D91: “Taming the Tawney Weed: ATS and Tobacco 2010” with Alfred Munzer, M.D., director of pulmonary medicine at Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park, Maryland. The symposium, which will take place on Wednesday, May 19 from 1:30 to 4 p.m., will focus on the efforts of the ATS, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) and medical researchers on behalf of domestic and global tobacco control. The program’s title, Dr. Wewers said, is a play on what Elizabethan playwright Ben Jonson (1572-1637) wrote in his satirical play,Bartholomew Fair: A Comedy: “Neither do thou lust after the tawney weed tobacco.”
Dr. Wewers will open with a presentation on “The ATS Workshop Recommendations on Tobacco Control,” which was published in the March 15 issue of Proceedings of the American Thoracic Society. “Initiatives to prevent and control tobacco use are having an effect, but success is coming too slowly,” she added. “That’s why, in 2007, the ATS charged a subcommittee to develop a preliminary strategy for enhancing scientific, clinical, educational and policy-related tobacco control efforts that are consistent with the vision of ATS: ‘working toward a world without lung disease.'”
If current efforts to prevent and control tobacco use were to continue along their current path, it is projected that the prevalence of tobacco use in the U.S. will only decline to 16 percent by the year 2025 (from 20.9 percent today). This slow rate of decline means that lung diseases such as COPD will continue to be top killers for decades to come.
The subcommittee specifically recommended that the ATS participate more fully in the investigation of the root causes of tobacco use, the treatment of nicotine dependence and advocacy efforts to eliminate its use. Dr. Wewers will explain the subcommittee’s specific recommendations at the symposium.
As the ATS is a strong advocate for the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which provides the FDA with the authority to regulate the advertising, marketing and manufacturing of tobacco products, a representative from the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products is scheduled to deliver the keynote speech on the new role of the FDA in tobacco regulation.
Another reason this session should spark great interest this year, Dr. Wewers noted, is that it addresses the need for clinical training in the treatment of tobacco dependence. “Studies show that only 60 percent of healthcare providers advise patients about smoking cessation, but over 70 percent of patients want help to quit smoking,” she said. “So there is a gap in the number of patients wanting to quit and the number of clinicians trained to help them quit. This session will emphasize best practices in smoking cessation.”
Yet another session that attendees should find of interest will address the treatment of tobacco dependence in low- and middle-income countries. “When we think of low- and middle-income countries, we tend to think of infectious diseases,” Dr. Wewers said. “But statistics show that by the year 2020, it is expected that people in these nations will also develop many more chronic diseases caused by cigarette smoking. So not only will we have to focus on infectious diseases, there will be the additional burden of chronic diseases caused by cigarette smoking.”
The characteristics of tobacco dependence and the latest scientific findings related to diagnosis and treatment of tobacco dependence will also be shared during the program.
Dr. Munzer will close the symposium with a presentation on how the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control has progressed since it was first approved by the World Health Organization in 2003.