Tobacco - Why the world needs to be smoke free.

We are pleased to invite you to:

The Institute of Health and Wellbeing Maurice Bloch Annual Lecture Series 2014/15.

Title: Tobacco - Why the world needs to be smoke free.

Presenter: Professor Jill Pell, Director Institute of Health and Wellbeing.

Date: Wednesday 27 August 2014

Time: 1pm, a light lunch will be served 30mins beforehand

Venue: Sir Alwyn Williams, Level 5 Suite

Chair: Dr C Johnman

Abstract:

It is more than 50 years since the harmful effects of tobacco were first recognised yet it remains a major threat to public health. Whilst overall prevalence is decreasing in developed countries particular sub-groups, such as young women, are resistant to change. Also, in terms of global health, the falls in prevalence observed in western countries have been more than offset by increases in highly populated, newly industrialised countries such as China. With good reason, tobacco control was chosen as the focus of the WHO’s first public health treaty. Tobacco has provided us with some of the best examples of public health success whilst, in some regards, also representing a public health failure. The talk will highlight why tobacco must remain a global priority.

Jill Pell is the Henry Mechan Professor of Public Health and Director of the Institute of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow. She is also an Honorary Consultant in Public Health in Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board. She was Professor of Epidemiology at the British Heart Foundation Cardiovascular Research Centre in Glasgow before moving to her current post.

She chairs the Population Health Sciences Group of the Medical Research Council and is a member of the Medical Research Council’s Strategy Board. She is a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Her research comprises epidemiology, natural experiments and record linkage of large routine databases. Her main research interests are cardiovascular disease and tobacco control. She is a member of the CLEAN collaboration; a pan-Scotland group charged with evaluating the impact of the Scottish smoke-free legislation. She was the Principal Investigator on a number of CLEAN studies including studies evaluating the impact on cardiovascular and respiratory disease and pregnancy complications. The former study was voted, by the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association, to be the most important research advance of 2008. She is Deputy Director of Farr Scotland; an MRC funded centre charged with advancing the use of Big Data for research.