OPENING KEYNOTE: Tobacco is a public health emergency

It has been 60 years since the ground-breaking report ‘Smoking and Health’ was published by the Royal College of Physicians, at a time when smoking prevalence was close to 70% for men and 40% for women. Whilst that report laid the foundations of tobacco control and great progress has been made in reducing smoking prevalence, there is much more to do if we are to prevent the annual global tobacco related death toll of 8 million people. The COVID-19 pandemic illustrated the collaboration and effectiveness with which the global scientific, public health and medical communities can come together to tackle a public health emergency and it is in this same spirit that the tobacco control community must overcome the devastation that tobacco leaves in its wake