As program director, Dr. Ehsan Latif is responsible for overseeing the strategy and execution of global initiatives that support smoking cessation and harm reduction. Dr. Latif has more than 20 years of experience managing the development and implementation of cohesive strategies to achieve public health gains by linking global health priorities to the needs on the ground.
POSTS BY AUTHOR
In Part I, I discussed failures in the implementation of the Global Strategy to Accelerate Tobacco Control 2019-2025 (GS2025). As that post indicates, there are many factors contributing to shortcomings on this front. In the current piece, I focus on one where a country, Thailand, which, in my opinion, is still facing challenges in reducing […]
A quote from Plato’s work Phaedrus says, “Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden.” This proverb is an apt description of some recent research on e-cigarettes and tobacco harm reduction, where first assumptions appear to be inaccurate based on […]
The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) was negotiated and adopted to decrease the burden caused by smoking both on the health and economies of the countries most affected. The smokers, users of tobacco, and tobacco growers remained at the heart of discussions and, therefore, the FCTC encompassed both demand and […]
Philip Morris International (PMI) has announced its intentions to remove its combustible tobacco products from the New Zealand market as early as this year. Should we view this initiative as the beginning of the end for combustible tobacco products, or as another ploy of the industry to subvert public health policy development? New Zealand has cemented itself […]
The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW) welcomes the release of the 2018 Global Progress Report on Implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). While we remain optimistic about the progress of the work undertaken to slow the demand for combustibles, the FCTC Secretariat’s approach and direction, as it relates to smoking cessation and […]