Tobacco Control Expert: Smoking May Claim the Lives of at Least 150,000 in Lebanon

Connolly: "Can we make smoking history in Lebanon? If Boston could do it, so can Beirut"

At least 150,000 Lebanese children alive today will prematurely die in adulthood because of active or passive smoking if nothing is done to ban smoking in public spaces, said a leading American tobacco control expert in lectures recently sponsored by AUB.

Additionally, another 350,000 Lebanese adults will die prematurely because of smoking-related illnesses, according to Greg Connolly, a Harvard professor of public health, who spearheaded a successful anti-smoking campaign in Massachusetts in the 1990s, leading up to a statewide ban of smoking in all indoor public spaces in 2004.

Connolly has conducted cutting-edge research on tobacco companies and the effects of smoking on public health. Some of his research inspired the 2006 Golden Globe-nominated satirical film, Thank You for Smoking, which featured a tobacco lobby group's spindoctor promoting cigarette smoking by hiding facts about the links between lung cancer and smoking.

Connolly delivered two energetic lectures on tobacco control in Lebanon on April 10-one on campus and a public one at the Gefinor-Rotana Hotel, which attracted a host of academics, doctors, social workers, representatives of drug companies, and the Ministry of Health, under whose auspices the public lecture was held. Health Minister Mohammad Jawad Khalifeh, who also practices medicine at AUB, attended that lecture, which was sponsored by Pfizer and organized by the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, as well as the AUB Tobacco Control Research Group.

At the start of his public lecture, Connolly asked, "Can we make smoking history in Lebanon? If Boston could do it, so can Beirut."

Connolly then told Boston"s story. Twenty years ago, when the Massachusetts anti-smoking campaign began, smokers doubted that banning smoking in public spaces would work in Boston. Yet through a massive mass media and legislative campaign aimed at both adults and children, the ban succeeded. Increasing cigarettes provided five cents per pack to help fund the campaign and discourage smokers.

Connolly also shared strategies in tobacco control that work. These included imposing big taxes and big warnings on tobacco products and total smoking bans, "because creating non-smoking areas in restaurants is exactly like designating a non-peeing side in a public swimming pool."
He said that in order for anti-smoking campaigns to succeed, public health specialists should document the problem and conduct scientific studies to prove the negative effects of smoking and the positive effects of smoking bans. They should involve political leadership and civil society and use the media to educate the public.

But he warned that tobacco companies can be rather wily. For instance, a Cyprus study showed that tobacco companies have been locating all their advertising campaigns around school playgrounds on the island. Similarly, a US study showed that tobacco companies increased nicotine levels by 13 percent, once smoking bans started taking effect, to make sure they would not lose their current client base.

"In Massachusetts, we sued Philip Morris and received $250 million. There is no reason, why this country should not sue Philip Morris and receive $250 million, which it could spend on the health of its young people," he said.