On Monday 9th December, the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO) hosted the 7th edition of the ICO-WHO Symposium on Tobacco Control. This conference, organised by the Tobacco Control Unit of ICO-IDIBELL in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), aims to provide a space to discuss and reflect on the main advances, current challenges and new guidelines in tobacco control.
This year’s edition, entitled ‘Taking Decisive Action in Tobacco Control’, focused on the main challenges that have emerged almost two decades after the ratification of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The emergence of new nicotine products, the need to extend smoke-free environments and the importance of implementing evidence-based interventions to reduce tobacco consumption were some of the issues addressed by leading international experts.
The symposium, which brought together around 100 participants in person and online, was attended by the Director General of Public Health of the Ministry of Health, Pedro Gullón, and the Secretary of Public Health of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Esteve Fernández. Together with the head of the Tobacco Control Unit, Cristina Martínez, they opened the conference.
