UW ITC Presents Dr. Wayne Gao

PRESENTATION: Saving 25 million smokers' lives by 2050 - If the Chinese government adopts two proven tobacco control experiences from Taiwan and Hong Kong

Please join us for a presentation from Dr. Wayne Gao, who will describe the unprecedented devastation that China is facing as its tobacco epidemic continues. Currently, tobacco kills more than one million people in China each year, and it is expected to kill three million annually by 2030. The total smoking attributable deaths (SADs) is expected to reach 200 million in China in 21st century if smoking rates continue under a business-as-usual scenario. It is imperative for China to deal with the tobacco epidemic now. Taiwan and Hong Kong's historical declines in smoking rates have occurred because of the implementation of strong evidence-based tobacco control policies. Dr. Gao will describe the Taiwan and Hong Kong policies and their potential to significantly reduce the toll of cigarette smoking in China. If China were to implement these proven tobacco control policies, Dr. Gao estimates that China could save 25 million smokers’ lives by 2050.

Dr. Wayne Gao is a Researcher at the Global Health and Development Program at Taipei Medical University in Taiwan. Dr. Gao received his Ph.D. in public health from New York University. After a decade-long international career in public health that included his role as Head of the GLOBALink program at the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) in Geneva, Switzerland and in the United States, Dr. Gao moved back to his hometown in Taipei in 2015 to continue as a faculty member at Taipei Medical University, Taiwan.

Sponsored by: The International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation (ITC) Project, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, University of Waterloo