Originally recorded 24 April 2018
Speakers: Dr. Lakshmi C. Somatunga (Deputy Director General (Medical Services) Ministry of Health, Nutrition & Indigenous Medicine Sri Lanka), & Professor Kamran Siddiqi (Department of Health Sciences, University of York)
The second half of the twentieth century was marked by increasing efforts to curb tobacco consumption and exposure. In the new millennium, the 2005 WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the first ever public health treaty, was developed by countries to tackle the factors leading to ill health from tobacco. Whilst significant progress had been made since then, many global challenges remain.
This seminar explores those challenges, with specific reference to South Asia. The expert panel consider the priorities, strategies and tests facing the accelerated tobacco control programme in Sri Lanka, and the use of smokeless tobacco products which are responsible for more than half a million deaths per year yet remain neglected in policy and research. The event also considers how such issues are considered and dealt with in the context of Universal Health Coverage frameworks.
This event was a collaboration between the WHO Regional Office for Europe, the WHO Collaborating Centre for Global Health Histories, and the Department of Health Sciences at the University of York
