Two tobacco control people predict tobacco use eliminated by year 2047..

June 27, 2009 - Dr. Michael Fiore, Director of the University of Wisconsin (UW) Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention and his Associate Director, Dr. Timothy Baker released article in the American Journal of Public Health (July 2009, Vol 99, No. 7 | American Journal of Public Health 1170-1175) have predicted that tobacco use will actually be eliminated in the United States by the year 2047.

PAPER: Stealing a March in the 21st Century: Accelerating Progress in the 100-Year War Against Tobacco Addiction in the United States, Michael C. Fiore, MD, MPH and Timothy B. Baker, PhD, published online ahead of print May 14, 2009, July 2009, Vol 99, No. 7 American Journal of Public Health 1170-1175, ABSTRACT...

Fiore says over the last couple of decades, more than 10-million Americans have been killed by smoking. It will take a lot of hard work, but Dr. Michael Fiore is convinced we can win the war on tobacco. The paper outlines ways progress can be accelerated so the goal can be achieved even earlier. Fiore explains eliminating the use of tobacco depends on increasing federal and state taxes, enacting a nationwide smoking ban, cutting out nicotine, media campaigns to point out the dangers of cigarettes, ban tobacco promotion, increase cessation counseling, and prevent kids from starting in the first place.

The pair published "Stealing a March in the 21st Century: Accelerating Progress in the 100-Year War Against Tobacco Addiction in the United States" in the American Journal of Public Health. Michael Fiore and Timothy Baker, director and associate director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention (UW-CTRI), respectively, chart milestones in beating tobacco addiction and map a battle plan to eradicate tobacco use in the next few decades. The researchers analyzed data from the 1960s, when the first systemic tracking of smoking rates began, until the present.

Baker and Fiore called for FDA regulation of tobacco products to spur progress. That bill was signed into law on June 22, along with provisions that would further restrict tobacco industry targeting of kids, strengthen health warnings on tobacco packaging, require disclosure about what's in tobacco products and ban terms like "light" and "mild" to describe cigarettes.

Reference: Experts: Big Tobacco Dead By 2047, Possibly Sooner, Medical News Today, 6/27/2009.