Welcome to Center for International Tobacco Control

About Us

In the 20th Century, 100 million people worldwide died prematurely because of tobacco use. If current trends continue unabated, smoking-related illnesses are expected to contribute to the premature deaths of 1 billion people in the 21st Century. In the year 2010 alone, smoking-related deaths are estimated at 6 million, 72% of whom live in low- and middle-income countries.

Since the 1960s, public health advocates have started the war against tobacco use, with efforts gaining increasing momentum ever since. There is global consensus that tobacco use must be reduced. The challenge is immense. With 1.4 billion smokers currently, the number of smokers by 2050 will reach 2.2 billion if current prevalence rates are sustained. By reducing the smoking prevalence by 1% per year, this number will be reduced by 700 million.

In Asia, the two largest consumers of tobacco are China and Indonesia. With 350 million smokers, China is the world's largest tobacco consumer, accounting for nearly one third of the world's annual tobacco consumption. Indonesia is the world's fifth largest tobacco consumers, with 62 million smokers in the country. Both China and Indonesia continue to pose huge challenges in the global effort to control the use of tobacco in the 21st century.

The Center for International Tobacco Control was established in 2006 to conduct research studies and programs to address the tobacco problem in these two countries with the following goals:

to conduct tobacco control research and programs in China in five areas: the development of the evidence and knowledge base for tobacco tax policy and policy alternatives; a crop substitution program for tobacco farmers; development of smoke-free environments in hospitals; promotion of awareness of health threats of secondhand smoke, in particular in the home environment; and monitoring the transition of China's tobacco industry under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, an international treaty under the World Health Organization to address the tobacco epidemic, to which China is a signatory.
to develop Indonesian tobacco control research in three areas: the economic costs of smoking; tobacco and clove farming; and monitoring Indonesia's tobacco industry after market entry by Philip Morris International;
to train more tobacco control researchers in China and Indonesia; and
to engage key economic policymakers in China and Indonesia through policy working groups and policy conferences.

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