Statistics and Actuarial Science researchers part of team awarded $10 million US for global tobacco study

Thursday, December 9, 2021

Person holding vape pen and cigarettes in their hands.
Distinguished Professor Emerita Mary Thompson and professor Changbao Wu from the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science are part of a research team conducting a project on how policies impact smoking, vaping and the use of other nicotine products.

Thompson and Wu are heading up the data collection design and management across the study sites, which include relevant policies in Canada, the United States, England, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea.

Each of these countries has very different policies and approaches to cigarettes, e-cigarettes and other new nicotine products, and the study sets out to understand the way these various policies impact rates of tobacco and nicotine use.

“The project will put Waterloo and our collaborators at the forefront of methods to examine changes in patterns of use of various nicotine products over time and to compare data across countries with very different policy approaches,” Thompson said.

The five-year, $10 million (US) international study is funded by the US National Cancer Institute.

Read more in the feature article in Waterloo News.