Moving tobacco control beyond "the tipping point"

doi:10.1136/bmj.321.7257.309

BMJ 2000;321:309-310 ( 5 August )

Editorials

Moving tobacco control beyond "the tipping point"

Ample funding, strong policies, and "unsticky" cigarettes are key

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Next week over 4000 people from about 120 countries will attend the 11th world conference on tobacco or health in Chicago.To mark the occasion, the BMJ, JAMA, and the Bulletin of the WorldHealth Organization are publishing theme issues. At a time ofsteadily increasing death and disease caused by tobacco and alarmingtrends in smoking in both developed and developing regions, conferencedelegates will discuss how to wipe out the "brownplague."

Malcolm Gladwell, author of the best selling book The Tipping Point,¹ believes he has the answer. He argues that ideas,messages, products, and behaviours spread like viruses. Fashiontrends, crime waves, Pokémon, and many other phenomena that characteriseeveryday life are examples of "epidemics in action." New ideas,products, or behaviours will cross the threshold into epidemictransmission $---$ that is, move beyond "the tipping point" $---$ if threerules are met. Firstly, people with a "rare . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

StumbleUpon Add to Technorati

Technorati

Twitter What's this?

Relevant Articles

Tobacco control policy is regarded as fascism in Japan: Iwao Gohma
BMJ 2001 323: 810. [Extract] [Full Text]

Impact of the Massachusetts tobacco control programme: population based trend analysis: Lois Biener, Jeffrey E Harris, and William Hamilton
BMJ 2000 321: 351-354. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

The economics of global tobacco control: Prabhat Jha and Frank J Chaloupka
BMJ 2000 321: 358-361. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

Molyneux, A., Lewis, S., Antoniak, M., Browne, W., McNeill, A., Godfrey, C., Madeley, R., Britton, J. (2004). Prospective Study of the Effect of Exposure to Other Smokers in High School Tutor Groups on the Risk of Incident Smoking in Adolescence. Am J Epidemiol 159: 127-132 [Abstract] [Full text]
Chapman, S. (2001). Advocacy in public health: roles and challenges. Int J Epidemiol 30: 1226-1232 [Full text]
Gohma, I. (2001). Tobacco control policy is regarded as fascism in Japan. BMJ 323: 810-810 [Full text]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Tobacco and free trade in China: James A Dickinson
bmj.com, 6 Aug 2000 [Full text]
Problems of smokers who want to stop: V Somisetty
bmj.com, 7 Aug 2000 [Full text]
Tobacco on the Shelf: L Vitetta, et al.
bmj.com, 9 Aug 2000 [Full text]
Kudos and concerns: Lois Rosenfelt
bmj.com, 12 Aug 2000 [Full text]
You can stop Smoking!: v somisetty
bmj.com, 11 Aug 2004 [Full text]