896 - World No Tobacco Day: Unmasking the Appeal of New Products

Public Health On Call

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Novelcoronavirus, Health, Publichealth, Covid, Globalhealth, Coronavirus, News, Health & Fitness, Education, Medicine, Covid19, Science

4.8 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2025

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

About this episode:

While cigarette use has radically declined in the U.S., many still die from smoking here and around the world. World No Tobacco Day—celebrated annually on May 31 since the 1980s—has helped expose tobacco industry tactics and highlight progress in global tobacco control. This year, a look at how manufacturers are increasing efforts to hook younger users on new products like e-cigs with fun packaging, new flavors, fashionable designs, and gimmicks including video games and social media integration.

Guests:

Kevin Welding is an economist studying corporate influence on public health at the Institute for Global Tobacco Control.

Tuo-Yen Tseng is a health policy researcher who studies social and behavioral change at the Institute for Global Tobacco Control.

Host:

Stephanie Desmon, MA, is a former journalist, author, and the director of public relations and communications for the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Show links and related content:

World No Tobacco Day 2025 Evidence and Resources—Institute for Global Tobacco Control
25 Years of Fighting Tobacco—Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Quit Smoking—American Lung Association
The Inside Story of the 1964 Surgeon General’s Report That Changed How Americans Viewed Smoking—Public Health On Call (July 2024)
An Update on Efforts to Prevent Tobacco-Caused Death and Disease—Public Health On Call (February 2024)

Transcript information:

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,
0:05.9	where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges.
0:16.3	If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jh.h.
0:22.6	That's public health question at jh.g.u.org for future podcast episodes.
0:31.6	Hey listeners, it's Lindsay Smith Rogers. World No Tobacco Day is coming up at the end of May.
0:36.9	While cigarette use has gone down dramatically in the U.S., many still die from smoking-related deaths here and around the globe.
0:44.5	Stephanie Desmond talks with Toy N. Seng and Kevin Welding from the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at Johns Hopkins about the trends in tobacco and nicotine marketing, from packaging that looks
0:56.3	like a cup of soda to e-cigarettes that link to video games, things that continue to worry experts.
1:03.3	Let's listen.
1:04.4	Kevin Welding and Toyen-Seng, thanks so much for joining us.
1:08.5	Thanks for having us.
1:09.8	Yeah, thank you.
1:13.6	Today we're going to talk about World No Tobacco Day. And before I start talking about it, Kevin, why don't you tell us a little bit about what it is and why we have it and what the theme is this year.
1:20.6	Sure.
1:21.6	World No Tobacco Day.
1:22.6	We've had it since actually like the late 80s.
1:25.6	The World Health Organization started it. The purpose was really to
1:29.4	inform the public of the dangers of using tobacco, exposing some of the tobacco industry tactics,
1:36.3	and also highlighting any progress there was in protecting health, because I mean, we know there's a lot
1:41.9	of good research around tobacco control, and we know
1:45.2	research saves lives. So every year they have a different theme, and the last few have talked
1:51.8	about the environment, farming, protecting children. The theme this year is unmasking the appeal.
	...

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