Knowledge exchange webinars
Since 2001, we have hosted knowledge exchange meetings and opportunities for members of the tobacco control, research and health promotion communities to showcase their work.
Thanks to our partner organization, Heart and Stroke Foundation (B.C. & Yukon) for the use of their Webinar platform.
This website contains information on meetings held since 2012. For more info on any given session, please contact the speaker directly. Materials provided here are free for public use, but we ask that you please credit the speaker or the appropriate source.
Overview
State-licensed production, processing and retailing of “recreational” marijuana began in 2014. Recent legislation is now bringing the sale of “medical” marijuana into the state system. Our presenters will share how it was implemented, some of the lessons learned and how the various government agencies are involved. There will be plenty of time for discussion.
Presenters
Kristi Weeks serves as Policy Counsel to the Department of Health, including overseeing the department’s implementation of marijuana regulation.
Mary Segawa is the Public Health Education Liaison at the WA State Liquor and Cannabis Board, focusing on policy and education related to preventing the misuse and abuse of alcohol and marijuana, including underage use.
Dr. Gillian Schauer is a contractor with the Office on Smoking and Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In that capacity, she works on research and policy issues related to both tobacco and marijuana. She has been CDC’s on-the-ground lead working with states on marijuana policy and works closely with Washington, Alaska, Oregon, and Colorado.
Overview
The minimum age for sale, possession, consumption, or purchase of tobacco products, including electronic smoking devices (e-cigarettes) will increase from 18 to 21 years in the state of Hawaii on January 1, 2016. It is the first state in the U.S. to pass such a law. This presentation will describe the strategies and collaborative factors that made this possible.
Speaker
Lila Johnson, RN. MPH, is the Program Manager for the Hawaii Department of Health, Tobacco Prevention and Education Program and has been with the Program for 18 years. Johnson earned a B.S. in Nursing from San Francisco State University and her M.P.H. at the University of Hawaii.
Overview
This presentation will provide an updated overview of developments in Canada regarding flavoured tobacco. Five provinces (AB, ON, QC, NB, NS) have brought forward legislation to ban flavoured tobacco, including menthol, while PEI is developing regulations. The presentation will include the rationale for these bans, the legislative experiences in other provinces, federal legislation, arguments of opponents, and the international context. BC has not yet brought forward legislation to ban flavoured tobacco, and can learn about what others jurisdictions have done regarding flavoured tobacco products.
Speaker
Our presenter is Rob Cunningham, a lawyer and Senior Policy Analyst for the Canadian Cancer Society who has worked in tobacco control for 27 years.
Overview
Finding innovative ways to encourage and inspire people who smoke, often hardened smokers, may be difficult. This presentation will look at ways to use CT lung cancer screening as a tool to show people how their lung functions have diminished as a result of smoking and that by quitting, people’s health can be improved. There are tremendous benefits to the individual and to the health care system as a whole to use this as a tool.
Speaker
Dr. Stephen Lam is Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. He chairs the Provincial Lung Tumour Group at the British Columbia Cancer Agency and directs the MDS-Rix Early Lung Cancer Detection and Translational Research Program at the BCCA. His research interest is in early detection, chemoprevention and endoscopic therapy of lung cancer. He was the recipient of the Friesen-Rygiel Award for Outstanding Canadian Academic Discovery and the Gustav Killian Medal by the World Association of Bronchology for his pioneering contributions to the field of early lung cancer diagnosis, the Distinguished Achievement Award from the University of British Columbia and the Joseph Cullen Award for life-time scientific achievements in lung cancer prevention research by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer. Dr. Lam received his medical training at the University of Toronto and did his residency and fellowship training in Internal Medicine and Pulmonary Medicine at University of British Columbia-associated hospitals. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the National Cancer Center Hospital in Tokyo, Japan, he joined the UBC Faculty of Medicine in 1979 and the BC Cancer Agency in 1984.
Re: Smoking and all-cause mortality in Australia: findings from a mature epidemic.
A large Australian study of more than 200,000 people has provided independent confirmation that up to two in every three smokers will die from their addiction if they continue to smoke. The research, published in the International Journal BMC Medicine, is the first evidence from a broad cross-section of the population to show the smoking-related death toll is as high as two thirds.
"We knew smoking was bad, but we now have direct independent evidence that confirms the disturbing findings that have been emerging internationally, said lead author Professor Emily Banks, Scientific Director of the Sax Institute's 45 and Up Study and a researcher at the Australian National University.
Speaker
Professor Emily Banks is a public health physician and epidemiologist with interest and expertise in large scale cohort studies, pharmacoepidemiology, women’s health, Aboriginal Health and healthy ageing. She is currently the Head of Chronic Disease Epidemiology at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Scientific Director of the 45 and Up Study and Chair of the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Medicines. The main emphasis of her work has been in using cohort study methodology to identify potentially modifiable factors affecting individual and population health in different settings and in quantifying their effects, to inform improvements in health and health care.
A recent Cochrane review of smoking cessation interventions in pregnancy found that of all the approaches studied, financial incentives were the most effective. However this was based on small trials in the USA and more evidence is needed. The largest trial to date of incentives for cessation in pregnancy, involving just over 600 women, has recently been completed in Glasgow, Scotland. In this study incentives were combined with the offer of support from local cessation services. At the end of pregnancy 22.5% of women in the incentives group had stopped smoking compared with 8.6% in the control group. An economic analysis and qualitative research was also conducted. Incentives remain highly controversial and the results of the trial have been met with a mixed response in the UK and elsewhere. This presentation will describe the content and results of the study, implications and future research.
Speaker
Linda Bauld is Professor of Health Policy at the University of Stirling in Scotland. She is also Deputy Director of the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies which covers 13 Universities. Linda is a former scientific adviser on tobacco control to the UK government and currently holds the Cancer Research UK Chair in Behavioural Research for Cancer Prevention, a part time secondment to CRUK to lead their cancer prevention initiative.
Email: linda.bauld@stir.ac.uk
This presentation will provide an overview of Canadian lawsuits against the tobacco industry, including medicare cost recovery cases by provincial governments. The two Quebec class actions seeking about $20 billion will also be featured, with the trial in these cases ending December 11, 2014 and the judgment pending. The historical background of the lawsuits and the importance of potential outcomes will also be discussed.
SPEAKER
Rob Cunningham is a lawyer and Senior Policy Analyst for the Canadian Cancer Society who has worked in tobacco control for 27 years.
This presentation provides an analysis of Vancouver’s smoke-free law in parks and beaches using a health equity lens to assess the policy adoption, implementation, and outcomes.
Speakers
Ann Pederson is the Director of Population Health Promotion at BC Women’s Hospital + Health Centre and an Investigator at the BC Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health (BCCEWH). Her research focuses on equity, particularly gender equity, women, and health promotion, including tobacco control.
Zim Okoli is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Tobacco Treatment and Prevention Division of the Tobacco Policy Research Program at the University of Kentucky. His research focus is on tobacco use policy, treatment and prevention.
Natalie Hemsing is a Research Associate at the British Columbia Centre of Excellence for Women's Health who specializes in research on tobacco use, addictions and health promotion among girls and women.
Renee O'Leary, MA is a doctoral student in the Social Dimensions of Health at University of Victoria, and Centre for Addictions Research BC, researching e-cigarettes. She has been with BCCEWH since 2009.
Complex adaptive systems are comprised of many elements in constant interaction. Efforts to make changes within such a system can produce results that are non-linear and unpredictable. Sound familiar? This presentation will introduce complex adaptive systems as a lens to view tobacco control, and a way to identify leverage points towards making the biggest impact with a new BC tobacco control framework.
Speaker
Gregg Moor is a Director and Project Manager with InSource Research Group. InSource brings a systems perspective to its work on the interrelated processes of the “knowledge cycle” (needs assessment, knowledge creation, knowledge translation, dissemination, adoption & uptake, evaluation). This provides a robust framework for identifying where efforts should be focused to achieve sustainable health system innovation. Gregg has worked for more than a decade in tobacco control, including coordinating a major project for the U.S. National Cancer Institute investigating the application of systems methodologies to tobacco control. He is the Scientific Lead for the InSource team that will facilitate the development of a BC tobacco control framework for 2015-2019.
The ‘hardening hypothesis’, which suggests that as the rate of smoking declines, those who remain will be those who are more ‘hardened’ to smoking and are unable or unwilling to quit, is popular and intuitively appealing. This presentation will discuss a recent analysis of ‘hardcore’ smoking over 10 years in Australia, with particular emphasis on socioeconomic differences in smoking.
Speaker
Philip Clare is a Biostatistician. For the past two years he has worked on large publicly funded (NHMRC) clinical trial of a smoking cessation intervention at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) at the University of NSW in Sydney, Australia. Prior to his work at the University of NSW, he worked in social and government research, including projects for the Cancer Council Victoria and the Australian Department of Health.