A smoke-free generation?

In 1854, John Snow carried out a study of the Broad Street cholera epidemic that is now recognised as a classic of epidemiology and public health practice.1 In the same year, Philip Morris made his first cigarette.2 Today, cholera still occurs but is rare, while cigarettes represent the biggest preventable threat to global health.

The magnitude of that threat is laid out in the latest World Health Organization report on the global tobacco epidemic.3 The report estimates that tobacco use currently causes around seven million (or one in 10) global deaths each year and details progress implementing the six core tobacco control policies advocated under the MPOWER acronym (Monitor, Protect from smoke, Offer help to quit, Warn about dangers, Enforce bans, and Raise taxes).4 These policies are intended to discourage people from consuming tobacco, much as removing the handle of the Broad Street pump reduced access to contaminated drinking water,1 …