Knowledge exchange webinars

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.

Canada and British Columbia have had tremendous success in reducing tobacco use. Yet despite this, more than 6000 British Columbians die each year from tobacco-related causes. New strategies are required to address this major, preventable cause of illness and death.

A report prepared for the Clean Air Coalition of BC by Garry Curtis, PhD Consulting calls for the Provincial Government to adopt a strategy to reduce the points of sale of tobacco products. The keystone recommendation is to establish a Provincial Target level for the number of points of sale well below the current 6000. In addition, it is recommended that a freeze on the current number be adopted along with a Strategy to reach the reduced Target Level. The Strategy is to include a series of steps that fall into four broad categories: Prohibitions on the Sale of Tobacco Products; Restrictions on the Sale of Tobacco Products; Enforcement; and Administration and Implementation. The Clean Air Coalition is seeking input and advice on the Report’s recommendations and on ways to implement them. Please see below to view report.

Speaker

Garry Curtis, Ph.D. Consulting: Garry has over 25 years of experience with provincial governments at the Assistant Deputy Minister equivalent, Executive Director and Director levels in program and project management and administration; health and social policy analysis, planning and development; including 7 years of leadership in intergovernmental relations. Since 2007, Garry has worked as an independent consultant for the Government of British Columbia, the Government of Canada, the Provincial/Territorial Deputy Ministers of Health, the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Deputy Ministers of Health, the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the Clean Air Coalition of British Columbia and the Heart and Stroke Foundation. The range of topic/issue areas addressed includes: Canada’s Public Health Network, federal/provincial health funding negotiations, electronic medical records, international education, prosthetic and orthotic benefits, health promotion, childhood obesity, and tobacco control.  email: garrycurtis@shaw.ca

Thanks to American lawsuits, millions of previously-secret tobacco industry documents are now freely available on the internet, including for non-American global cigarette makers like British American Tobacco and Gallaher.

Stan Glantz once called the tobacco industry documents the human genome equivalent for corporations, because they help us deconstruct and understand how the world’s most embattled corporations think and act, and anticipate actions they are likely to take in the future. We’ll take a look at how to access the documents, some of the interesting information they reveal, and resources for finding research and analysis already done on industry documents.

Speaker

Anne Landman:  From 1999-2006, Anne worked as a tobacco document research specialist, and published several studies on tobacco industry behavior in medical journals. She has testified against the tobacco industry, and served as a national and international speaker on corporate PR strategies and tactics. After observing similarities between the way the tobacco industry operates and the PR strategies and behaviors other big industries are now adopting, since 2006 Anne’s interests gave expanded to corporate, government and political PR strategies, including tactics like greenwashing, pinkwashing, healthwashing, greedwashing, use of front groups and so-called “corporate social responsibility.” From 2006 until 2012 she worked for the Center for Media and Democracy, publisher of PRWatch.org and SourceWatch.org. While there, she started SourceWatch’s Tobacco portal and served as Managing Editor of PRWatch and SourceWatch. In addition to corporate behavior, Anne also is interested in local, state and national political shenanigans, consumer scams, and more. This blog contains news and views that Anne finds of interest, as well as her own original writing and observations.

David Sweanor, B.A., J.D.
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa
Special Lecturer, Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham

David received an undergraduate degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1978, his law degree from the University of Toronto in 1981, and was called to the bar of the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1983. Since that time he has worked in public health efforts, specializing in tobacco issues and focusing on how legal measures can greatly impact upon population health. As part of that work, and to raise a family and pursue his interest in outdoor activities, he moved to Ottawa in 1989.

He has played a key role in Canadian efforts on, among other things, tobacco taxation, advertising restrictions, package labelling, environmental tobacco smoke, smoking cessation, litigation and product regulation. During the time of his active involvement in successfully advocating for public policy changes in Canada per capita cigarette consumption in the country declined by roughly 60%, much of which can be directly tied to policy interventions. The Non-Smokers’ Rights Association where he did most of his Canadian work in his capacity as counsel, received significant international recognition for many ground-breaking public health advances.

David has also been active on a similar range of global issues, working with bodies such as the International Union Against Cancer, World Health Organization, World Bank, Pan American Health Organization and numerous governments, foundations, law firms, companies making smoking cessation products and national non-governmental organizations.

In pursuing his primary interest in the interaction of law and economics as a determinant of public health, he has spent much time in recent years on tax policy, contraband tobacco, litigation strategies, the provision of tobacco dependence treatment products and the changing landscape of harm reduction products. Anticipated future death rates from cigarette smoking can be reduced through prevention of onset, protection of non-smokers from environmental tobacco smoke, cessation of smoking and substitution of less toxic alternative products for those who are not ready, willing and able to quit. As those last two areas of interventions are currently the most controversial (but likely also the most effective) ones currently available to counter smoking’s toll, they are now David’s favourite topics. This involves efforts to apply rational public policies that recognize that there is much more that can be done to facilitate smoking cessation. It also involves recognizing that there are a vast range of risks associated with nicotine intake depending upon the delivery system, that many alternative nicotine products have comparatively minor risks, and that harm reduction principles have enormous potential to transform the epidemic of tobacco-caused death and disease.

He has been widely published in peer-reviewed scientific journals as well as having authored work for major national and international health and social service organizations. He has spoken at conferences in numerous cities around the world, and has been a frequent guest on major media in Canada and other countries. He has testified before parliamentary committees in Canada and elsewhere and before both Senate and House committees in the United States. He has received various awards for his work, including a ‘Public Health Hero’ lifetime achievement award from the Pan-American Health Organization.

email: dsweanor@uottawa.ca

Evidence linking smoking and second-hand smoke (SHS) exposure with premenopausal breast cancer (BC) reinforces the need to prevent young women’s exposure to tobacco. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of tailored, gender-sensitive web-based messages in raising awareness about tobacco exposure as a modifiable risk factor for BC in four target groups: Aboriginal girls, non-Aboriginal girls, Aboriginal boys, and non-Aboriginal boys.

Message development was informed by focus group findings, recognized gender norms, and the literature. The messages were evaluated in a sample of youth (n=1499; 56% female; 11% Aboriginal) participating in a longitudinal, web-based cohort study in British Columbia. The youth, stratified by gender and Aboriginal status, were randomized either to the intervention (tailored message regarding BC and smoking) or control group (standard message about smoking and cancer). In this presentation we will share results of the message development and evaluation phases of this study and outline our planned use of the internet in the knowledge translation and exchange activities derived from this project.

Speakers

Dr. Joan L. Bottorff, University of British Columbia Okanagan, School of Nursing:  Dr. Bottorff is a Professor at the School of Nursing, University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, and Co-Principal Investigator for the START (Supporting Tailored Approaches to Reducing Tobacco) Research project with Dr. Chris G. Richardson. She is also Director of the Institute for Healthy Living and Chronic Disease Prevention at UBC’s Okanagan campus. Her research on health promotion and cancer prevention is primarily focused on gender influences, particularly in the context of tobacco control.

Dr. Chris G. Richardson, University of British Columbia, School of Population and Public Health:  Dr. Richardson is an Associate Professor in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia and Co-Principal Investigator for the START (Supporting Tailored Approaches to Reducing Tobacco) Research project with Dr. Joan Bottorff. His research is focused on investigating the bio-psycho-social mechanisms associated with the initiation and escalation of substance use in adolescents.