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Derek Yach, MBChB, MPH and Stella Aguinaga Bialous, DrPH, MScN, RN

Derek Yach is with the World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. Stella Aguinaga Bialous is a public health policy consultant in San Francisco, Calif.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Derek Yach, MBChB, MPH, Executive Director, Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, World Health Organization, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland (e-mail: yachd{at}who.int).

ABSTRACT

Despite the tobacco industry's claims that it has changed its practices, the toll of tobacco-related disease and death continues to grow worldwide, and the industry continues to use a vast array of strategies to promote its products and increase profits. This commentary discusses the ways the tobacco industry has created controversy about risk assessment and about the scientific evidence of the health hazards of secondhand smoke.

The authors recommend that policymakers be more vigilant and that they demand transparency about affiliations and linkages between allegedly independent scientists and tobacco companies. They also urge policymakers to be prepared for new and continuing challenges posed by the tobacco industry, because, despite the industry's claims, there is little evidence of fundamental change in its objectives.

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