The 2004 Progress Report on Tobacco Control

Summary

This, the 2004 Progress Report on Tobacco Control, Moving Forward, is the fourth report on developments connected to a framework for action against tobacco use which was endorsed and implemented in 1999 by Canada 's federal, provincial and territorial Ministers of Health. New Directions for Tobacco Control in Canada: A National Strategy emphasizes sustained, comprehensive, integrated and collaborative approaches to reducing tobacco use, and is based upon shared responsibility among all levels of governments - federal, provincial, territorial and local - and with non-governmental organizations (NGOs). This Report outlines tobacco control activities undertaken from May, 2003 to May, 2004 in the context of the National Strategy.

The Strategy incorporates four interconnected goals: prevention - keeping youth from starting to smoke; cessation - helping smokers to quit; protection - ensuring smoke-free environments; and denormalization - educating Canadians about the marketing strategies and tactics of the tobacco industry, and the effects the industry's products have upon the health of Canadians. These goals inform the National Strategy's five strategic directions: policy and legislation; public education; industry accountability and product control; research, evaluation and monitoring; and building and supporting capacity for action.

The 2004 Report constitutes a concise version, as prescribed within the context of the National Strategy's agenda for an annual report on developments - alternating between detailed reporting one year and high level coverage the next. Key indicators - smoking prevalence, tobacco consumption - are derived from 2003 findings in the Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey (CTUMS), which was conducted by Statistics Canada on behalf of Health Canada .

This abbreviated Report offers an overview of progress by outlining a single activity or initiative per federal / provincial / territorial or local government or NGO within any one of the following areas of endeavour: policy and legislation; cessation and public education; tobacco industry accountability and product control; research, evaluation and monitoring; and management of tobacco use within First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities.

Also this year the Report features a policy comparison examining the impact of price elasticity on consumption and smoking prevalence; as well as a review of health disparities related to gender (i.e., gender differences in tobacco use and sex-specific differences in the health effects of tobacco and exposure).

The requirement to include only a single item per National Strategy stakeholder in this short form report implies that a significant amount of information will be more fully presented in next year's detailed Report. Nevertheless, the 2004 Report aims, by featuring examples of activities connected to a variety of players in the Strategy: to illustrate the range of initiatives required for effective tobacco control; to show the diversity of programmes being carried out within the context of these initiatives; and to underscore the effectiveness that commonality and complementarity, inherent in a national, multi-party strategy, bring to tobacco control.

Finally this Report aims to illustrate the requirement for a sustained response to tobacco use, which has persistently rebounded whenever tobacco control efforts slacken. We invite Canadians to look closely at the dynamics of tobacco control in Canada , and to consider the tremendous potential for reducing death and disease caused by tobacco that is being realized - and has yet to be realized - under the auspices of New Directions for Tobacco Control in Canada: A National Strategy.