Moving tobacco control beyond "the tipping point"

doi:10.1136/bmj.321.7257.309

BMJ 2000;321:309-310 ( 5 August )

Editorials

Moving tobacco control beyond "the tipping point"

Ample funding, strong policies, and "unsticky" cigarettes are key

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Next week over 4000 people from about 120 countries will attend the 11th world conference on tobacco or health in Chicago.To mark the occasion, the BMJ, JAMA, and the Bulletin of the WorldHealth Organization are publishing theme issues. At a time ofsteadily increasing death and disease caused by tobacco and alarmingtrends in smoking in both developed and developing regions, conferencedelegates will discuss how to wipe out the "brownplague."

Malcolm Gladwell, author of the best selling book The Tipping Point,¹ believes he has the answer. He argues that ideas,messages, products, and behaviours spread like viruses. Fashiontrends, crime waves, Pokémon, and many other phenomena that characteriseeveryday life are examples of "epidemics in action." New ideas,products, or behaviours will cross the threshold into epidemictransmission $---$ that is, move beyond "the tipping point" $---$ if threerules are met. Firstly, people with a "rare . . . [Full text of this article]

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