The Conference Blog - Basel

David Sweanor: Strategies of the Tobacco Industry in the Year 2015

David Sweanor is adjunct professor with the Faculty of Law of Ottawa University. He is a former legal counsel of the Non Smokers Rights Association.   
LISTEN  (23min)

Guido Palazzo: The corporate social responsibility façade of the tobacco industry

Guido Palazzo is assistant professor at the University of Lausanne. He specializes in business ethics.
LISTEN (26 min)

Anna Gilmore: The Future of BAT: World Leader or Also-Ran, Paragon or Pariah?

Anna Gilmore is with the London based European Centre on Health of Societies in Transition.LISTEN (30 min)

Pascal Diethelm introduces the session about the influence of the tobacco industry

Pascal Diethelm is President of OxyRomandie. LISTEN (4 min)

Philipp Müller about Nicotine Vaccines

Philipp Müller is  Executive Vice President Clinical Development of Cytos Biotechnology. He talks about  nicotine vaccines. LISTEN

Nancy Rigotti: Smoking Cessation in Clinical Practice

Nancy Rigotti is Professor of Medicine at Harvard. Her presentation was entitled: 2007 Pharmacotherapy Update.  LISTEN

How does your country rate in tobacco control?

This useful postcard is proposed by ECL.

More podcasts from the conference to come

We have recorded many sessions but since the files are too big we need to edit them and separate each speaker's presentation. This takes time so we ask for your patience and understanding. To be automatically informed when a new podcast becomes available just subscribe to the blog and you'll receive the information directly in your email box.

Cecilia Farren interviews Jonathan Foulds

Jonathan explains to Cecilia his arguments in favor of a harm reduction strategy.
LISTEN (12 min)

Our warmest thanks to our bloggers and podcasters :)

I am sure we'll see you soon on your own blogs and podcasts :)
Have a safe trip home and thanks again for your contribution.

Day 3 Influence of Tobacco Industry

After yesterday`s heated discussion regarding the Tobacco Industry`s attendance at the conference the Executive Committee had an extra meeting and announced before the start of the plenary session "ìnfluence of the Tobacco Industry`" that they were not welcome and invited anyone who was in the pay of the Tobacco Industry to leave.

There then followed session on what tobacco control should focus on to counter the continued growth and profitability of the global tobacco industry. Obviously I will not go into detail here as the Tobacco  Industry might read it!

Moles in Our Midst

During a discussion after some presentations at the parallel session on Future of Tobacco Control in Europe, it was pointed out that tobacco industry (TI) representatives disguise themselves at meetings.  The Chair invited TI reps in the audience to identify themselves, whereby four raised their hands.

Interview of Cecilia Farren, a wonderful tobacco control advocate

Cecilia who just started podcasting at the Basel conference has been a wonderful tobacco control advocate since the early 1980s. A lesson in persistence and enthusiasm.
LISTEN (10 min)

Janet Reece interviews David Sweanor

David Sweanor is adjunct professor with the Faculty of Law of Ottawa University. He is a former legal counsel of the Non Smokers Rights Association. He talks here about taxes and prices.  LISTEN  (9 min)

Thank you Janet for this recording :)

 

 

Interview with Douglas Bettcher

Doug is acting director for the WHO Tobacco Free initiative.

LISTEN (20 min)

Theres a loose snus aboot this hoose.

Its a bit unfortunate that I do alot of talks on Swedish snus. In the presentations I  have to distinguish between snus portion-packed in little tea-bags and "loose" (like ground coffee). With my Scottish accent the words loose snus seems to provoke laughter from the audience even though Im trying to be serious. Oh well.
Todays session on snus/harm reduction was well attended but didnt produce the usual fireworks elicited by this topic.

Does the nicotine vaccine work?

At todays session on "The future of Smoking Cessation" (chaired by Jaques Cornuz) there was a fascinating presentation of new data from a Swiss trial of a new nicotine vaccine. The results were consistent with the few previous vaccine trials in demonstrating a significant effect of the vaccine in helping smokers quit (versus placebo vaccine). However, the effect was no better than existing medicines (eg NRT).

Posters day 2

Again quite a few gaps from those accepted but not turning up. The poor positioning of the posters has robbed the participating delegates of the audience they deserve.

More details of individual countries` smoke free class initiatives added little to the morning session. Collaboration on themed topics such as this could have been more useful.

Day 2 Session 2 - Smoke free class competition?

The Smoke Free Class Competition is a school-based smoking prevention campaign targeted at 11-14 year olds. Part funded by EU it operates in 19+ countries. The essential idea is that classes that remain non-smoking for 6 months can claim prizes (often travel vouchers). The session split the audience into those enthusiastic (passionate) to continue and others who doubted the efficacy of the initiative (even suggesting that peer pressure may result in bullying)

Cecilia Farren interviews Karen Gutierrez

Karen Gutierrez is with Global Dialogue for Effective Stop Smoking Campaigns. LISTEN (23 min)

Cecilia Farren interviews Gerard Hastings

Gerard Hastings is with Cancer Research UK at the University of Stirling in Scotland.  LISTEN (21 min)

Cecilia Farren interviews Constantin Krasowsky

Our podcaster extraordinaire at the Basel Conference, Cecilia Farren interviews Constantin Krasowsky (from Ukraine).
LISTEN (16 min)

She also took his picture.

Day 2 Session 1 - Harm reduction

Another interesting discussion over breakfast (Mental Health and cessation and how to engage with minority communities)

The first session of the day was likely to be the most controversial. Following the RCP report of last week Harm Reduction is a hot issue in the UK and the session attracted a good sized audience.

Detailed presentations from fellow blogger Jonathan Foulds and Dorothy Hatsukami concentrated on the relative risks of SNUS and other oral tobacco products. These were followed by a debate.

End of the day

Socialising with colleagues and new contacts is an important part of conferences. Some might think it sad but generally conversations drift back to tobacco topics.

This was certainly true of the end of day 1. A mixed bunch of British, Swiss and Americans joined together for an impromptu meal. Similar groups of delegates were doing the same all over Basel.

Sponsored Symposium Day 1

For those who have not been to conferences before I should explain that not only do many start early and continue all day but in addition there are often extra sessions organised in the early evening. I am always surprised that so many people are still eager for more. Basel is no exception.

Posters day 1

One of the highlights of some conferences is the surprising poster that in a few seconds gives you an insight into a topic or intervention that you would not have sat through a session to receive. Unfortunately the poster session in Basel is a little disappointing. Not only are the posters displayed away from the main areas (you have to make an effort to see them but there are so many gaps (presumably people who got their poster approved but who did not turn up)

Parallel session: Youth, Smoking in Films, Advertising, Campaigns, and Internet Programmes

Smoking in Norwegian Movies: Trends in Frequency 1945-2004 - Saebo of Norway presented his preliminary findings on smoking scenes from 196 Norwegian movies (69% of the final sample). Especially interesting were early findings from a comparison of smoking in films versus the real world, where prevalence of smoking in the film world was higher than “real life” between 1955 to 1975, but was lower from 1975 onwards. 

Parallel Session: Health Promotion

The interesting session on Health Promotion was chaired by ECL member Dutch Cancer Society's Stefan Wigger.  I had joined the session late, but was just in time for the presentation by Cancer Research UK's marketing Manager, A. Brown, who  gave example of ads as part of her presentation on "Smoke is Poison - advertising to raise awareness of toxic chemicals in tobacco smoke" . 

The ads are viewable here.

The ads are interviews with people who work with hazardous chemicals, and show the natural surprised reactions of the workers when they are told that those same dangerous chemicals are found in cigarette smoke.  Re the ad on "Formaldehyde Video Ad", the speaker said the funeral manager, a heavy smoker, was genuinely shocked and proceeded to quit after the video was made.

Cora Honing, President of the European Cancer Leagues

ECL is a co-sponsor of the Basel Conference and Cora welcomed the participants during the first plenary session. She also shared her comments with Globalink Radio. LISTEN

Jean King: The role that cancer societies can play in international tobacco control

Jean King of Cancer Research UK delivered a very interesting presentation and talked afterwards with Globalink Radio. LISTEN (17 min)

Just arrived from Madrid

For many folks in tobacco control, October is an exceptionally busy month. I was just at the annual meeting of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) in Madrid last week, popped back to New Jersey for a few days and have just arrived in Basel (via Zurich) for the 4th European Conference on Tobacco or Health. Then later in the month its the US National Conference on Tobacco or Health. Anyone ever think of spacing these things out?

The Federer-Davidoff connection in Basel: Sign the petition in protest

Pascal Diethelm aks all the conference participants to sign the petition to protest the sponsorship of the Basel International Tennis Tournament by Davidoff and ask Roger Federer not to let use his picture in connexion with Davidoff: while he is a Unicef Ambassador, the Davidoff brand is used by Imperial Tobacco to promote smoking in many countries, especially less privileged ones.  LISTEN to Pascal (7 min)  En Français (8 min)

Parallel 1 -Socio-economical aspects of smoking

Several presentations relating to `hard to reach`communities. Clearly a problem in virtually all countries. A lack of evidence on this subject reminded me that we (those implementing tobacco control policies etc) often carry out intiatives but don`t get round to writing them up for others to learn from or to build the evidence base.

Interview with Luk Joossens

Janet Reece and Philippe Boucher interview Luk Joossens for GLOBALink Radio about his presentation rating 30 European countries about their tobacco control achievements. LISTEN (10 min)

Read the report (pdf format): Progress in tobacco control in 30 European countries

UK Number 1!

Luc Joossens announced the results of the revised Tobacco Scale (where each European country is assessed and scored against various tobacco control measures such as price, smoke free laws etc)

Even though we knew the result had to be good for the UK as Luc progressed through all the countries giving a sentence or two summary for each (Austria 30th out of 30) I could not help but feel the tension mounting.

Opening Ceremony

Over breakfast I had already met with colleague Andrea Crossfield where, although we meet regularly in our own country, we finally got together to discuss how we can make the most of a new EU funded project.

The conference program

Here are the links to the daily program:
Day 1 (oct 11)  Day 2 (oct 12) Day 3 (oct 13)

Arrival

Having not visited another coutry without comprehensive smoke free law since 1st July I was wondering when I would get my first whiff of indoor air pollution. As it happens my wife and I were able to travel from Birmingham to Zurich and then onto the hotel in Basel (using the ruthlessly efficient Swiss transport system) all in relatively clean air.

Introducing blogger Jonathan Foulds

Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D. is a professor at the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey – School of Public Health, and is the Director of the Tobacco Dependence Program at UMDNJ-School of Public Health.

Introducing podcaster Janet Reece

I work as Smoke Free Birmingham Programme Manager co-funded by the Department of Health and local health care trusts. 
I have been involved in tobacco control in England since 2005 and together with colleagues worked to achieve a comprehensive Smoke Free Law.  The new law was introduced this summer. 
The Smoke Free Birmingham Coalition is concerned that smoking has become a disease of the most disadvantaged and continues its activity to target key policies, plans and funding to reduce tobacco use and smoking prevalence especially in the most deprived parts of the city.

Introducing Blogger Wendy Tse Yared

As the Director for the Association of European Cancer Leagues (ECL),  one of this 4th ECToH’s organisers, I look forward to contributing online here.  For those of you not familiar with us, ECL is an alliance of national and local cancer leagues across Europe, which connects the efforts of cancer leagues throughout Europe and works toward influencing EU and pan-European policies.  Tobacco control is one of ECL’s main and long-standing priority areas.

My interest in tobacco control started umpteenth years ago with my doctoral research at Hopkins exploring how websites were being used for tobacco control.  One of my current non-day jobs is researching on how the web can improve as a tobacco control tool for youth, and developing web-based educational content for children and youth.

Since ECL is a permanent co-organiser of European ToH conferences, we would welcome advice from seasoned conference attendees and feedback from those attending this ECToH on how future conferences might be improved to further your work.

Introducing Blogger Paul Hooper

I have been involved in tobacco control in England since 1985 so it was with particular pleasure I witnessed the introduction of the Smoke Free Law this summer.

As Regional Tobacco Policy Manager for the Department of Health in the West Midlands and a member of the Tobacco Control Centre team I have an interest in all aspects of the conference. However, I shall be spending much of my time looking for ways to enhance our future programmes and to make the most of the progress we have made so far.

Through the blog I hope to provide honest feedback especially for those unable to attend in person.

Why this blog?

After the positive  experience of a collective blog during the COP2 conference in Bangkok we decided to conference blog again during this 4th European Conference Tobacco or Health.

We thought it would be good  to have participants share their comments on line about what is happening so that the wider, global community can feel/be involved.

Until now the tobacco control community has not been using very much the web2.0 tools, including blogs.

We hope this conference can be an opportunity to introduce more tobacco control advocates to blogging.

You are welcome to  give it a try by joining the team of our contributors  (it's as simple as email).

How to "conference blog"?

You are most welcome to contribute posts to this blog.

To become a co-author, please email me so I can register you and email you the information so you can access the blog. It is as simple as emailing and don't hesitate to contact me if you have any problem.

Tell me also a little about you so I can post a brief bio: readers like to know who's who.

We also need a picture :) to post in our listing of the contributors to the blog.

Thank you in advance.

Philippe

About this blog's Editor

Philippe Boucher is Blogger in residence for GLOBALink where he writes glkvideo, tc images, graphic warnings, nuigrav (in French along with la revue de presse and pour des avertissements graphiques ), smoke-free hotels, rendezvous, as well as the podcast globalink radio. He is also in charge of GLOBALink Africa a program that promotes african bloggers like Jackie Tumwine, Francisco Cabo, Pascal Bogui, Adeola Akinremi, Véronique Le Clézio. He edits African News.
GLOBALink Africa is sponsored by the Norwegian Cancer Society in collaboration with the Framework Convention Alliance.