Knowledge exchange webinars

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.

Over the past twenty years, the Canadian tobacco industry has created and hidden behind various front groups in order to bypass its general lack of credibility and oppose new restrictions on smoking and advertising (ex: Alliance for Sponsorship Freedom, 1997-1998 ; MyChoice.ca, mid-2000s). These groups seem to have outlived their usefulness to the industry as summer festivals continue to flourish without tobacco sponsorship and smoking restrictions being praised and appreciated by both businesses and the public. They are no longer being funded by the industry.

Since 2006, the industry’s interests are most vocally being defended by the Canadian Convenience Stores Association (CCSA) or, in French, l’Association canadienne des dépanneurs en alimentation (ACDA). Various indicators link this group to the tobacco industry, including inside industry presentations to shareholders.

These documents reveal various public relations strategies that are focussed on the issue of contraband and are based on the four following pillars: “Cash” (government revenue lost to contraband), “Crime” (reinforcement of criminal gangs), “Children” (threat to children’s health) and “Convenience” (threat to the survival of small tobacco retailers).

However, industry documents combined with CCSA’s public positions (namely its continuous exaggeration of the size of the contraband market, its impact on retailers, its relevance to youth smoking and the loss of government revenue) suggests that this focus on contraband is in fact a political and public relations strategy aimed at decreasing taxes (or preventing increases) as well as blocking new regulations on the legal market.

This presentation will dissect the available information regarding this new strategy, and will analyse its impact on recent tax policy and legislative reform in Quebec and in Canada.

Speakers

HEIDI RATHJEN:  Heidi’s efforts in advocacy began in 1989 when a shooting tragedy at her school prompted her to co-found the Coalition for Gun Control. She worked for six years as its executive director, culminating with the passage of the Canadian Firearms Act in December of 1995. In 1996, Heidi co-founded the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control and has been its co-director ever since, lobbying for bans tobacco advertising, smoking in public places, tobacco products displays, as well as tax increases. The Quebec Coalition has coordinated numerous campaigns, included those leading to the adoption of the Quebec Tobacco Act in 1998 and it’s reinforcement in 2005. Heidi has a bachelor degree in Engineering and has received numerous awards, including an honorary doctorate in law (Concordia University), an honorary doctorate in medicine (University of Laval), the Prix de la Justice du Québec, the World Health Organization’s 1999 Tobacco Free World Award and a Certificate of Merit from the Canadian Public Health Association.

FLORY DOUCAS:   Flory Doucas has been the Co-director and spokesperson with the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control for the past 4.5 years. She holds a post-graduate diploma in Environmental Health from the Université de Montréal. Flory began her career in tobacco control 10 years ago and has worked for Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada and the Non-smoker’s rights association.  Her work has included policy research and advocacy at the provincial and federal level for smoke-free legislation, display and marketing bans, taxation and contraband measures, product regulation as well as industry front groups. While she began her career in tobacco control as a one-year maternity contract, her early work with the late Heather Crowe, a remarkable woman, motivated and inspired her remain in tobacco control.

A Washington State referendum on marijuana reform appeared on the November 2012 general election ballot. It was passed by a vote of 56% to 44%. As described by the Secretary of State’s office, the measure will “license and regulate marijuana production, distribution, and possession for persons over twenty-one; remove state-law criminal and civil penalties for activities that it authorizes; tax marijuana sales; and earmark marijuana-related revenues.” Since approval, much coordinate work by several departments has been undertaken to implement marijuana reform.

Speakers

Mary Segawa, Washington State Liquor Control Board: Mary Segawa provides alcohol and marijuana education and outreach in her position at the Washington State Liquor Control Board after 14 years of community-based prevention work.

Sarah Mariani, Washington State Division of Behavioural Health and Recovery: Sarah has worked as community organizer for over fifteen years including coalition-building, strategic planning, and training. Sarah has worked for the state of Washington for seven years. Before joining state government, she was the Executive Director for a program to prevent youth violence and substance abuse. Sarah currently serves as the Behavioral Health Administrator overseeing substance abuse prevention and mental health promotion services for the Washington State Division of Behavioral Health and Recovery.

Paul Davis, Washington State Department of Health: Paul is the Oral Health, Marijuana Education, and Tobacco Prevention and Control program manager for the Washington State Department of Health. He has been with the Department for 10 years. Prior to that Paul worked in the field of substance abuse and mental health treatment and prevention.”

Sean Hanley, Washington State Institute for Public Policy: Sean is a Senior Research Associate at the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP) in Olympia, WA and will be leading WSIPP’s benefit-cost analysis of the implementation of the policy throughout the state.

‘Leader’ countries where smoking prevalence is relatively low, and where tobacco control measures based on the WHO FCTC are well-implemented, are well-placed for a tobacco endgame (the complete phasing out of tobacco). One such endgame idea is the tobacco-free generation (TFG) proposal, which proposes an amendment to current sales laws, such that tobacco sales are denied to persons aged under 18 OR born after a certain date (such as 1st January 2000). This proposal has received much interest in Singapore, and Tasmania (Australia).

This presentation will outline the current progress of the TFG proposal, the localized strategies of Singapore and Tasmania, and how a TFG endgame may be adapted into tobacco control strategies internationally. It also looks at important ethical aspects of tobacco endgames and TFG: human rights (i.e. how tobacco endgames relate to the human rights to liberty, self-determination, privacy, life and health) and how these rights are often framed around a libertarian ethos, i.e. freedom of action (often mistranslated as a “right to smoke”) versus pursuit of the common good.

Speaker

Yvette van der Eijk is a final year PhD student at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics, National University of Singapore in Singapore. She completed a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry with Pharmacology at the University of Surrey, UK in 2009, and visiting fellowships for bioethics research at the Hastings Center (New York) and University of Tuebingen (Germany). Her current research interests include the neurological and social aspects of addiction, and ethical aspects of genetic testing for addiction, nicotine vaccines, and public health strategies such as tobacco harm reduction and tobacco endgames. She is a keen advocate for a tobacco endgame, and is working on the ethics / human rights aspects of the tobacco-free generation endgame with advocates in Singapore and Tasmania (Australia).

Among youth in B.C., the co-use of marijuana and tobacco is highly prevalent, yet a considerable gap remains in the drug-prevention literature pertaining to such co-use. In particular, the prevention field lacks research exploring how adolescents understand the health implications of smoking these two substances in combination. In this presentation, we draw on findings from the TRACE project (Teens Report on Adolescent Cannabis Experiences) and our qualitative research on the health beliefs and social identities youth associate with smoking marijuana and/or tobacco. We argue that smoking prevention and cessation initiatives targeting adolescents must address both marijuana and tobacco. Such initiatives must also be designed to identify and address how adolescents frame the potential health harms associated with smoking these substances.

Speaker

Rebecca Haines-Saah is a public health researcher whose work focuses on adolescent mental health and substance use. She is currently a MSFHR Science Policy Fellow at the BC Ministry of Health and the BC Ministry of Child and Family Development. Rebecca is presenting on behalf of the TRACE project team, led by Principal Investigator, Dr. Joy Johnson.

Sometimes good information to support tobacco control can be hard to find! The PROPEL Centre for Population Health Impact’s recently updated report, Tobacco Use in Canada: Patterns and Trends, 2013 Edition aims to change that by synthesizing and presenting you with the latest available data from national surveys conducted by Health Canada and Statistics Canada.

This presentation will orient participants to this valuable resource, providing guidance on how to access the report and the wealth of information it provides. Highlights of tobacco use patterns in Canada will be presented, as well as some patterns specific to British Columbia.

Speaker

Jessica Reid, MSc: Jessica is a Project Manager at the Propel Centre for Population Health Impact, and has worked on tobacco-related projects for close to a decade. Her experience and expertise relate primarily to survey research, population-level studies, and coordinating international projects.

Picture Me Smoke-free is funded by a “Social Media Interventions for Tobacco Prevention and Cessation” grant from the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute (2011-2013). The research partners are: the Investigating Tobacco and Gender (iTAG) research team at the University of British Columbia, Canadian Cancer Society B.C. and Yukon, and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of B.C. and Yukon.

In Canada, young adults have been identified as a priority population for smoking cessation with rates of tobacco use highest among those aged 19-24 when compared to all other population groups. Yet very little is known about how the social meaning of smoking might be different for young adult women and men and how tobacco use and cessation is influenced by gender for young adults.

Typically smoking cessation campaigns for this demographic have relied on gender stereotypes, such as promoting feminine appearance imperatives (i.e. smoking makes you ugly) for young women, or linking masculinity and sexual virility for young men (i.e. smoking makes you impotent).

As an alternative, the Picture Me Smokefree Project is a “Health 2.0” intervention and feasibility study that uses social media and digital photography to create an online community where young adult women and men can create and share their own imagery of smoking and quitting. The intent is to provide a supportive, peer-driven space where participants can reflect on their tobacco use, reduction and cessation. Rebecca’s presentation will highlight the outcomes of this feasibility study and the possible implications of this research for the design of health messaging campaigns and tobacco interventions that aim to be gender-specific or gender-sensitive.

Picture Me Smoke-free is funded by a “Social Media Interventions for Tobacco Prevention and Cessation” grant from the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute (2011-2013). The research partners are: the Investigating Tobacco and Gender (iTAG) research team at the University of British Columbia, Canadian Cancer Society B.C. and Yukon, and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of B.C. and Yukon.

Speaker

Rebecca Haines-Saah, PhD: Rebecca is a health sociologist and works as a Research Associate at the School of Nursing, University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on gender, women’s health, and substance use. She has been working in tobacco research since 1999 and has a longstanding interest in the visual culture of tobacco and substance use prevention and has led several arts-based health research projects on smoking. If you Google her name you will quickly discover that as a teenager she was an actress on a popular Canadian television show. Herself a former smoker, Rebecca is passionate about tobacco control as a social justice issue and about working for the empowerment of people that smoke or who want to quit.