Tobacco Asia

26 tobaccoasia Issue 6, 2022 November / December Staff Report Findings from a new report by University of York researchers emphasized what should have been obvious long before this – tobacco control policies, particularly in low– to middle–income countries, should address local needs rather than be based on presumptions from high-income countries. This particular report, titled Common assump- tions in tobacco control that may not hold true for Southeast Asia and published in The Lancet Regional Health - Southeast Asia, points out that common assump- tions about tobacco control may not necessarily hold true for Southeast Asia and thus can misdi- rect policy and implementation. This very valid point may be but a blip on the radar for regulators and public health officials in many countries who chose the easier – if less beneficial to their people – path of following the World Health Organiza- tion's (WHO) anti-tobacco creed when develop- ing their tobacco control measures, but it really should not be disregarded. According to the WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2021, out of the world's 1.3 bil- lion tobacco users, more than 400 million live in the 11 WHO Southeast Asia region (SEAR) coun- tries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, North Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Timor-Leste.) SEAR has the highest prevalence of tobacco use (27.9% of which 46% are men and 9.7% are women) and is also an im- portant tobacco growing hub, with India and In- donesia being among the top five producers. According to researchers Kamran Siddiqi, Monica Arora, and Prakash C. Gupta, tobacco control progress in SEAR countries is slow and many policies are not well developed. They posit that some common assumptions about tobacco use and its control are a key contributing factor for this, as these assumptions may be inaccurate for SEAR, yet these same assumptions remain so firmly rooted in tobacco-related research and policy standards that they mislead policy direction. Siddiqi et al's examples of some of these common assumptions start with the interchange- able use of the terms "smoking" and "tobacco" in scientific literature, campaigns, legislature, poli- cies, and services. As Siddiqi explains, "The use of the term 'smoking' in scientific literature, poli- Tobacco Control: There's No One-Size-Fits-All Solution University of York researchers found that combustible cigarettes are not the prevalent method of tobacco consumption in Southeast Asia region countries.

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