Transcript Position Enhancement Summary

TOBACCO Control:
Progress and Priorities
Charles Gardner, MD, CCFP, MHSc, FRCPC
MOH, Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit
March, 2014
Tobacco Control System Committee
Expert Advice for Ontario:
Tobacco Strategy Advisory Group (TSAG)
 BUILDING ON OUR GAINS, TAKING ACTION NOW: ONTARIO’S
TOBACCO CONTROL STRATEGY FOR 2011 – 2016
 Based on EVIDENCE TO GUIDE ACTION – PHO
 Advice to government:
• Tobacco Control System Committee to advise the province on SFO
renewal implementation
 Targets to be achieved by 2016
• 5% reduction in tobacco use (490,000 fewer users)
• Reduce ETS – ban smoking on restaurant and bar patios, and allow
smoke-free leases in the Residential Tenancies Act
• Increase quitting rates and reduce reuptake rates
• Ban new tobacco products
• Reduce tobacco disease by 6.5%
• MOHLTC target – Ontario to have lowest rate of smoking in Canada
OTRU 2014 Report:
Smoking rates over time in Ontario
The Impact of Smoke-Free Public /
Work Places (and the need for smokefree patios)
Successes in Smoking Prevention
Past-Year Smoking, by grades 7-12, Ontario, 1977-2011
Source: 2014 Smoke Free Ontario Strategy Evaluation Report. The Ontario Tobacco Research
Unit. January 2014
Priority Populations
.
Source: 2014 Smoke Free Ontario Strategy Evaluation Report. The Ontario Tobacco Research Unit. January
2014
TSAG Implementation
Highlights of Strategies Commenced:
 Whole of government approach
• Ministry of Health Action Plan: to have the lowest smoking rate in
the country
• Min of Finance re contraband - engagement of first nations re
contraband
 Tobacco growing:
• Raw leaf regulation commenced in January, 2014
 Cessation:
• Need to double annual quit rate from 1.6% in order to achieve TSAG
target of 5% reduction over 5 years (OTRU 2014 report)
• Coordinated tobacco cessation services
– hospital-based and workplace-based smoking cessation demonstration
grants
– increased access to counseling and pharmacotherapy through primary
care
– Provincial cessation supports reaching 5% of smokers (OTRU 2014
report)
• ODB coverage for prescription cessation products
TSAG Implementation
Strategies commenced:
 Research
• Provincial and local research, surveillance and monitoring – re
initiatives, programs, policies, disparities, youth and young adult
prevention
 Reduce disparities
• Engage First Nations (Min of Finance)
 Social marketing
• Social smoking provincial commercial (movies and internet re social
smoking – Cannes award for creativity)
• TCANs – regional social marketing events (ex. CE – social supply
awareness videos)
• OPHEA school-based tobacco prevention pilot
TSAG Implementation
Strategies commenced:
Youth Smoking Prevention Act if passed, will:
 Products: prohibit new products (ban flavored tobacco products
targeted at youth), restrict water pipes (enhanced testing for
tobacco content)
 Prohibit smoking on playgrounds, sport fields, and restaurant
and bar patios (local public health action re bylaws – 75+
outdoor smoking amendments)
 Prohibit tobacco sales on post-secondary education campuses
and specified provincial government properties
Federal Budget 2014:
 Price: Increase price / tax ( $4 per carton)
TSAG Implementation
Strategies awaiting commencement / uncertain status:
 Sufficient resources (at least $100 M would be within the CDC
recommendations)
– Current strategy funding is $47.8 million (this includes the $5M
enhancement in 2011)
– Dedicated funding from tobacco taxes to tobacco control
– Public health funding from tobacco settlements
 Divestment of investments
 Products: plain packaging
 Price: Anti-contraband public education
 Promotion: Adult ratings for movies and video games with
tobacco imagery
TSAG Implementation
Strategies awaiting commencement / uncertain status:
 Tobacco Growing: Work with partners to reduce tobacco
production over time (licenses, acreage, ceilings)
 Protection
• Smoke-free Multiunit Dwellings:
– Amend Residential Tenancies Act to allow smoke-free MUDs a material
term of leases (local municipal initiatives – now 75 + smoke-free
community housing
buildings in Ontario)
– Tax credits for smoke-free
affordable housing
Final Thoughts (OTRU 2014)
“Strong scientific evidence supports further prohibitions on
smoking in public spaces, restricting retail availability of
cigarettes and increased funding for intensive public
education and media campaigns.”
Robert Schwartz, Executive Director of OTRU, Associate Professor at
the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Senior Scientist at CAMH.
Proposed new legislation and changes in regulations about
outdoor smoking and flavored cigarettes together with
renewed investments in social marketing and cessation
system development indicate that the Ontario Government
is attuned to the need to do more.
Source: 2014 Smoke Free Ontario Strategy Evaluation Report. The Ontario Tobacco Research
Unit. January 2014