World Health Organization honours Waterloo researcher Geoffrey Fong for his global anti-tobacco efforts through the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project.
Geoffrey Fong's research has helped change tobacco policy in countries around the world.
On the bottom floor of the Psychology, Anthropology and Sociology building at the University of Waterloo, about 30 people keep track of how well tobacco control policies around the world discourage people from smoking.
It’s a global war, not a battle.
“I believe that strong evidence can give policymakers the courage to do everything that is right,’’ says Geoffrey Fong, founder and principal investigator of the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (known as the ITC Project).
On May 31, 2013 — World No Tobacco Day — Fong was one of five international health officials, researchers and organizations honoured by the Pan American Health Organization and World Health Organization for their contributions to advancing tobacco control around the globe. A statement from the health body credits Fong's research with making "a significant difference in advancing the fight against one of the leading preventable causes of death in the world."
For 10 years, Fong, a professor of psychology in the Faculty of Arts, and his colleagues have been convincing countries to adopt stronger anti-smoking policies based on sound science. They also track the performance of the 174 governments that have signed the 2005 Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Consider the example of South Korea.
In November, the ITC Project released a report of their five-year evaluation of South Korean tobacco control policies showing that progress the country achieved in controlling smoking between 1995 and 2005 had slowed to a halt. South Korea hasn’t raised cigarette taxes since 2004, and text-only warnings on its cigarette packages don’t meet the current treaty standard of large warnings with graphic images. Because of the report, the Korean Health Minister has pledged that his government will renew their efforts to reduce smoking—the leading cause of death in their country, as in Canada.
Graphic message in plain packaging
Last fall, the ITC Project began studies in Zambia and Kenya. Smoking rates in Africa are not yet as high as they are in Europe and Asia. Fong hopes the adoption of strong control policies now might “inoculate” African countries against increases in smoking rates.
Fong also wants China—with 300 million smokers—to intensify warnings, raise taxes on tobacco products, and implement truly smoke-free laws, because of ITC data over five years showing that Chinese policies have done almost nothing to reduce smoking.
And Canada can’t rest on its laurels. Fong says it should follow Australia, and adopt plain cigarette packaging that essentially eliminates the powerful branding that the tobacco industry has successfully used on cigarette packs.
Meanwhile, Fong remains a tireless crusader, armed with research evidence that he hope will help reduce the global tobacco epidemic — which, if unchecked, will kill one billion people in the world in the 21st century.
