(Tuesday May 28th, 2013, Brasília, Brazil and Waterloo, Ontario, Canada): The International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (the ITC Project) today released the results of a four-year study (the ITC Brazil Survey) of the effectiveness of bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship (TAPS) in Brazil. The release of the ITC Brazil Report on TAPS (the Report) is part of Brazil's events for World No Tobacco Day, which this year is focused on TAPS. The Report finds that incomplete and poorly enforced bans on TAPS mean that nearly a quarter of Brazilians still see marketing messages from tobacco companies at Point-of-Sale (PoS) displays, through corporate social responsibility initiatives run by the industry, on tobacco product packaging and in TV shows and films. Almost half of smokers (49 percent) and non-smokers (45.4 percent) agree that tobacco companies should be required to sell cigarettes in packs with only the brand name and health warnings, but without colorful designs on the rest of the pack.

Beijing, China (Saturday, Dec 15, 2012) – The International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (the ITC Project) and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) launched the findings of a three-year evaluation of tobacco control policies in China – the world’s largest producer and consumer of tobacco. The ITC Project Report was presented in Beijing on Friday, December 14 and Saturday, December 15 by Professor Geoffrey T. Fong, Chief Principal Investigator and Founder of the ITC Project at the China Forum on Chronic Disease Prevention and Control. The ITC China Report confirms that China has fallen well short of its commitments to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) the world’s first public health treaty. The findings of the ITC China Survey, conducted between 2006 and 2009 among 5,600 adult smokers and 1,400 non-smokers in 7 cities in Mainland China, show clearly the China’s policies are very weak across several key areas of tobacco control.

(Thursday November 15th, 2012, Seoul, Republic of Korea and Waterloo, Ontario, Canada): The International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (the ITC Project) today revealed the results of a five-year study of the effectiveness of tobacco control policies in the Republic of Korea, where smoking related diseases kill more than 55,000 people each year. Although tobacco control legislation introduced between 1995 and 2005 had a dramatic effect in reducing smoking rates, the ITC Korea Survey (the Survey) found that progress has slowed in the past five years, with the diminishing impact on smokers of comparatively small, text-only warnings on cigarette packs, the increased affordability of cigarettes, and the lack of comprehensive smoke-free laws to reduce smoking in public places and protect smokers and non-smokers from secondhand smoke.

BUFFALO — Smokers who try to quit have a better chance of succeeding when they use FDA-approved stop-smoking medications rather than going it alone, according to a new study by researchers at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) published online today in the British journal Addiction. See more...