Reversing the Tobacco Epidemic

This publication describes the activities of the project Public Health Capacity Building for Strengthening Tobacco Control in South-eastern Europe (also called the South-eastern Europe Tobacco Control Project) from 2005 to 2007. The project aimed to enhance the capacity of the countries in south-eastern Europe in various components of successful tobacco control, most notably in raising awareness of the entry into force of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in south-eastern Europe and improving the knowledge and skills of policy-makers and public health leaders in comprehensive tobacco control. Other project activities focused on collecting, analysing and interpreting the most recent data on the prevalence of tobacco use, lung cancer mortality and legal aspects of tobacco control. This publication gives an overview of the activities, achievements and challenges that the country project managers, their teams and the main project partners faced in implementing various activities related to tobacco control during 2005–2007. It also updates the data on the prevalence of smoking in various population groups and mortality related to tobacco consumption as well as new evidence on the legal aspects of tobacco control in south-eastern Europe.