Global momentum for smoke-free society

In a perspective article in the April 12 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Association of European Cancer Leagues describe the growing momentum for indoor smoking bans in countries across the globe. They identify Ireland’s pioneering 2004 comprehensive indoor smoking ban as a likely tipping point for fundamental change in social norms and public health worldwide.

Since 2004, in only a few years, more than a dozen other countries have also adopted national indoor smoke-free policies that are being implemented or will be implemented in the near future.

Lead author Howard Koh, professor and associate dean of public health practice at HSPH, said: “The 21st century is witnessing a paradigm shift, once considered impossible, whereby entire countries are declaring themselves smoke-free in indoor public places. Such mounting progress across the globe is making smoking history worldwide.”