Description

The WHO 2009 Report on Tobacco, identifies tobacco use as a global epidemic and states that worldwide tobacco is the "leading cause of preventable death". This activity asks participants to investigate the regional dynamics of tobacco use. It asks that participants think globally about the consumption of tobacco.

Task

1.Use Smoke Free World to look at one organizations perspective of tobacco advertising within the global South.
2. Supplement this by looking at the following World Health Organization regional pages to understand the regional dynamics of tobacco use.
WHO Europe
WHO Middle East
WHO South-East Asia
WHO Americas
WHO Africa
WHO Western Pacific
Or check out the attached 2009 WHO Report on Tobacco.

3. Think about the significance of these differences. Choose a country or region and construct an understanding of the dynamics of smoking in a region. Try to identify how it is different from your own. Think about things like prevalence in public and private places, growth of tobacco, access to health care, warning labels on cigarettes, laws on age of smoking, access to cigarettes, cost of cigarettes and advertising strategies.
4. Compose a brief story or diary entry highlighting these difference. Include this composition in the Student Writing section of this virtual classroom.

Optional: Use the Social Networking feature of TIG to contact someone in that region and ask them about their experience of tobacco consumption. Was your perspective close to theirs?

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Learning Objectives

• Enhanced understanding of global similarities and disparities in smoking statistics
  
• Advance understandings of the many ways that smoking affects people's lives
  
• Foster cross-cultural understandings of the smoking phenomenon

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Continue to 3.1 Individual and Collective Costs of smoking »