The Pre-Conference Seminar in Taiwan, on Global Tobacco Control Policy Research and Development

The Pre-Conference Seminar in Taiwan, on Global Tobacco Control Policy Research and Development

Category : Events

Health promotion administration, Taiwan conducted a seminar on Global Tobacco Control Policy Research and Development at National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, on September 3rd, 2017. The prime focus of this seminar was the international status of the harm of smoking. Speakers from renowned institutes in Canada, Korea and Taiwan expressed the situation and efforts of smoking cessation in their respective countries.

Prof. Geoffrey T. Fong, the ITC (International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project) project manager at the University of Waterloo, expressed the increasing importance of research evidence in talking Global tobacco epidemic, with examples from the ITC project. He focused on the ways to combat the tobacco epidemic, with a direction to determine strong, evidence-based measures, that will decrease tobacco caused harm and further, the earliest possible implementation of these measures.

Dr. Hong-Gwan Seo, the president of KASH (Korean Association on Smoking or Health), gave a review on the brief history of tobacco control in Korea. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control was ratified by Korea in 2005 and carried out a number of measures in tobacco control. The initial problems in the control, the various measures carried out such as increase in cigarette tax, penalty for smoking in smoke-free areas, health warning text on cigarette packs, one-man rally and hot debates were the ways in which they were accomplished.

Dr. Mattiah Sana, a post-doc researcher, at the Taipei Medical University in Taiwan, introduced SimSmoke, a dynamic simulation model, developed by Prof. David Levy, Georgetown University, U.S.A. This model projects the smoking rates and the total deaths attributable to smoking and considers the effects of tobacco control policies on those outcomes. It is based on the population module, policy module and the smoking module. SimSmoke projects population, smoking prevalence, and smoking attributable deaths for up to 50 years from the baseline year.

There were other renowned professionals who attended this Seminar and contributed to the discussion sessions throughout: Prof. Ya-Wen Betty Chiu, Dr. Ying-Wei Wang, Prof. Yi-Hua Chen and Dr. Shabbir Syed-Abdul from the Taipei Medical University, Dr. Steve Tsai from Hualian Tzu Chi hospital, Prof. Chi-pang Wen from National Health Research Institutes and, Dr. Annie C. K. Quah from National University of Singapore.

This seminar was indeed a good experience for the health care professionals, researchers and students interested in the tobacco control programs and their implementation in different countries.