Actions such as advertising bans and increases in the price of cigarettes have been shown to influence cigarette sales, particularly among adolescents. Therefore, a Tobacco Policy is necessary to reduce the health consequences of tobacco, and experience shows that this should be targeted via a variety of actions aimed at stopping young people starting smoking and helping smokers to quit. To be efficient and successful, a tobacco policy has to be comprehensive and maintained over a long time period. Increased taxes on tobacco, total bans on direct and indirect advertising, smoke-free enclosed public areas, education, effective health warning labels on tobacco products, a policy of low maximum tar and nicotine levels in cigarettes, encouragement of stopping smoking and individual health interventions have to be implemented urgently. The importance of adequate interventions is demonstrated by the low lung cancer rates in Scandinavian countries which, since the early 1970s, have adopted integrated central and local policies and programmes against smoking.
Tobacco control remains more than ever an important public health priority.
There are various elements to any Tobacco Control Policy but the importance of the medical and oncological community in setting an example is paramount. A particularly fundamental exemplary role is that of the General Practitioner who is so often the interface between the individual and the health services. Preamble to Recommendations International medical opinion has favoured market shrinkage by every means available in order to limit the long-term adverse health effects surrounding the use of this product. Tobacco smoking poses a unique Public Health problem in that if it were discovered today it would automatically be banned. Its ubiquitous usage is an accident of history which cannot be reversed by an unenforceable ban on its use.