A global health perspective on the future of tobacco control

In this age of globalization, the outcome of tobacco control in one country is connected to events on the global stage. Tobacco control has become an increasingly consolidated global movement, catalyzed by the global tobacco control treaty, the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) as well as the Bloomberg Initiative. This global collective effort is necessary in the face of an increasingly aggressive tobacco industry that has consolidated into a small number of very large multinational corporations, operating globally to expand their markets. Looming issues for tobacco control include the success with which the FCTC is implemented within individual nations, finding the proper role of harm reduction approaches, and using "lessons learned" from experience in the United States with tobacco product regulation.