Tobacco is the largest preventable cause of premature death in the world. One billion people worldwide will die of tobacco related illnesses in this century if current patterns and trends persist.
David Hammond, Associate Professor with the School of Public Health and Health Systems, is committed to making a difference to this worldwide tobacco problem. Hammond has served as an Advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) on tobacco control, and conducts international research on the effectiveness of graphic warning labels on cigarette packs.
“I work with people from around the world on common, yet complicated problems,” explains Hammond. “The system we work in to solve these big problems inevitably includes not only other researchers, but also policy makers, and non-governmental associations.
“If we’re talking about changing policy, there are different influences, different inputs, and different actors we need to consider. We can no longer think about problems in simple, linear terms, there are many important interconnected factors to examine.”
To mitigate the worldwide tobacco catastrophe, the World Health Organization established the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC), the first international public health treaty in history. To date 172 FCTC signatory countries have committed to implementing national policies to reduce tobacco use in their populations as quickly as possible. Hammond's research has served as a major source of evidence to guide the packaging and labeling guidelines for the 172 countries that have ratified the FCTC.
Working on the world stage, Hammond sees “the big shifts going on in our populations.” “We are seeing massive shifts in obesity and tobacco use; in order to understand these problems we need to understand environments, which means looking at different countries, evaluating different policy experiments, and imagining different ways of intervening effectively.” He believes, “We would miss the most important answers if we didn’t look at what is happening in other countries and regions.”
Looking ahead, Hammond is devoted to using evidence to improve public health policies that promote health on a global scale. His passion is fueled in knowing “What seems impossible today is common place tomorrow.”