GIS Project “Tobacco Free World”

 

Introduction

Tobacco use is the world’s leading cause of preventable death, according to the World Health Organization. In the Western Pacific Region, it is estimated that at least two people die each minute from a tobacco-related disease. Apart from the harm smoking causes to smokers, exposure to second-hand smoke is a major public health hazard. In 2010, it was estimated that globally more than 600 000 people die each year from exposure to second-hand smoke; 28% of these deaths were among children. In Asia and the Pacific, more than half of women and children are regularly exposed to cigarette smoke in public places and at home. ^[3]

Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for 8.2 million deaths in 2012. Among all cancer types lung cancer is the cause of 1.59 million deaths. ^[6]

Lung cancer kills more people globally than any other cancer, and by far the biggest cause of the disease is cigarettes. The lag time between when a person starts smoking and when cancer develops can be 30 years. High rates of lung cancer in countries such as the United States reflect high rates of smoking several decades ago.

Tobacco use is the single most important risk factor for cancer causing about 22% of global cancer deaths and about 71% of global lung cancer deaths in many low-income countries. ^[1]

Smoking has declined in many industrialized countries, but it is increasing in developing nations. Today, China consumes more than a third of the world’s cigarettes, and an estimated two thirds of men in Indonesia smoke. Experts predict sharp increases in lung cancer deaths in the developing world in the years ahead. ^[1]

Tobacco kills almost six million of its users each year. The tobacco industry needs to attract new customers to replace those who die or manage to quit maintaining and increasing tobacco sales and profits. At the core of the industry strategy to sell its products are tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship (TAPS). ^[10]

There is a causal relationship between advertising and promotional efforts of the tobacco companies and the initiation and progression of tobacco use among young people. ^[9]

Dedication

I would like to dedicate this project to a bright memory of my loving father who tragically passed away after he lost his battle with lung cancer on November 25^th, 2011. My family and I will always love and cherish him. Nobody in the world deserves to go through what my father and my family did.

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank my GIS professor Dr.Sergei Andronikov for the education he provided, for his support and encouragement, for sharing his depth of knowledge, enthusiasm, and enormous experience in GIS field.

Goals and Objectives

The goal of “Tobacco-Free World” project is to perform global analysis to determine top countries which require more help with lung cancer awareness and enforcing tobacco use laws and policies to improve and save human lives.

• Analyze men currently smoking any tobacco product by country^[12]
• Analyze women currently smoking any tobacco product by country^[12]
• Analyze youth (ages 13-15) exposed to secondhand smoke at home^[12]
• Analyze smoke-free educational facilities worldwide^[8]
• Identify countries which need to enforce smoking policies at schools^[1]
• Analyze boys and girls ages 13-15 who are current cigarette smokers^[12]
• Consumption, cigarettes per person, per capita ^[12]
• Analyze death from lung cancer by countries^[1]
• Analyze tobacco billboard and outdoor advertising by country^[8]
• Analyze international magazines and newspapers tobacco advertising by country^[8]
• Analyze international television and radio tobacco advertising by country^[8]
• Analyze Internet tobacco advertising by country^[8]
• Analyze local magazines and newspapers tobacco advertising by country^[8]
• Analyze national television and radio tobacco advertising by country^[8]
• Analyze points of sale tobacco advertising by country^[8]
• Analyze sub national bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship^[8]
• Identify countries that need to enforce tobacco advertising bans^[8]

Data

Some world spatial data was downloaded in a form of a layer for ArcMap from ESRI website. The most of my data I collected throughout the Internet (view the reference list) in a form of .xls, .xlsx, .csv, .pdf files. The attributive data was the most challenging part of the project. I performed a lot of data and file conversions, but the most trouble I had with the attribute country names. Different sources use different country names (some use shot some use full names) for example In my spatial data layer from ESRI the geodatabase is using country name “United States”, where the World Health Organization is using name “United States of America”. Because of the mismatches in the primary key field the output of joining spatial layer with WHO data table would always result in <Null>. The solution for it was manually changing most country names in WHO data table so they would be exact matches of ESRI country names. This process was very time consuming.

GIS Analysis

Analyze men currently smoking any tobacco product by country ^[12]

Analyze women currently smoking any tobacco product by country ^[12]

Countries where more than 30% Men and Women Smoking ANY Tobacco (%), 2009^[12]

Consumption, cigarettes per person, per capita ^[12]

Analyze youth (ages 13-15) exposed to secondhand smoke at home ^[12]

 

Top countries where youth is exposed to secondhand smoke at home, (%) (ages 13-15)^[8]

Secondhand Smoke

Secondhand smoke is the combination of smoke from the burning end of a cigarette and the smoke breathed out by smokers. Secondhand smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals. Hundreds are toxic and about 70 can cause cancer. ^[5]

Analyze boys and girls ages 13-15 who are current cigarette smokers ^[12]

Countries where more than 20% of boys & girls ages 13-15 are current cigarette users ^[8]

Despite the ads and warning that cigarette smoking is bad for the health, a lot of people are still smoking and find it hard to quit the habit. What would you do if you found out that there is a link between smoking and lung cancer?

Smoking can cause cancer and then block your body from fighting it:

•Poisons in cigarette smoke can weaken the body’s immune system, making it harder to kill cancer cells. When this happens, cancer cells keep growing without being stopped.

•Poisons in tobacco smoke can damage or change a cell’s DNA. DNA is the cell’s “instruction manual” that controls a cell’s normal growth and function. When DNA is damaged, a cell can begin growing out of control and create a cancer tumor.

Doctors have known for years that smoking causes most lung cancer. Nearly 9 out of 10 men who die from lung cancer are smokers. And about 3,000 nonsmokers die each year from lung cancer caused by secondhand smoke. ^[4]

Deaths:

Worldwide, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in men and the second leading cause of cancer death in women, with an estimated 951,000 deaths in men and 427,400 deaths in women in 2008. ^[7]

Global trends:

International variations in lung cancer rates and trends largely reflect differences in the stage and degree of the tobacco epidemic. 57-58, 59-60 In several Western countries, where the tobacco epidemic peaked by the middle of the past century, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Finland, lung cancer rates have been decreasing in men and plateauing in women 61-62 (Figure 8). In contrast, in countries where the epidemic has been established more recently and smoking has just peaked or continues to increase, such as China, Korea, and several countries in Africa, lung cancer rates are increasing and are likely to continue to increase at least for the next few decades, barring interventions to accelerate smoking cessation and reduce initiation. ^[7]

Risk factors:

Cigarette smoking is the most important risk factor for lung cancer, accounting for about 80% of lung cancer cases in men and 50% in women worldwide. Risk increases with quantity and duration of cigarette consumption. Cigar and pipe smoking also increase risk. Other risk factors include secondhand smoke, occupational or environmental exposures to radon and asbestos (particularly among smokers), certain metals (chromium, cadmium, and arsenic), some organic chemicals, radiation, air pollution, coal smoke, and indoor emissions from burning other fuels. Genetic susceptibility contributes to risk, especially in those who develop the disease at a younger age. ^[7]

Prevention and early detection:

Lung cancer is one of the most preventable cancers. Most lung cancers could be prevented by reducing smoking initiation among adolescents and increasing smoking cessation among adults. This requires a comprehensive tobacco control program that includes raising the price of tobacco products through excise taxes, banning smoking in public places, restricting tobacco advertising and promotion, counter-advertising, and providing treatment and counseling for tobacco dependence. In the United States, comprehensive tobacco control programs in many states have markedly decreased smoking rates and accelerated the reduction in lung cancer occurrence, particularly in California. In the developing world, there is a striking difference in smoking prevalence between men (50%) and women (9%).

As women have not yet begun to smoke in large numbers in developing countries, preventing increases in smoking prevalence among women could have a major impact on future lung cancer rates and would provide an opportunity to avoid the mistakes made in developed countries where lung cancer rates skyrocketed as a result of the tobacco epidemic.

Screening for early lung cancer detection has not yet been proven to reduce mortality. Chest x-ray, analysis of cells in sputum, and fiber-optic examination of the bronchial passages have shown limited effectiveness in reducing lung cancer mortality. Newer tests, such as low-dose spiral computed tomography (CT) scans and molecular markers in sputum, have produced promising results in detecting lung cancers at earlier, more operable stages, and preliminary results from a randomized clinical trial have shown reduced lung cancer deaths in high-risk patients. However, there are considerable risks associated with lung biopsy and surgery, and the net benefit of screening in the general population has not been established. ^[7]

Analyze death from lung cancer by countries ^[1]

Top 40 Countries with the highest deaths from Lung Cancer, Rate ^[1]

The highest rate of deaths from Lung Cancer in countries where more than 30% men and women are currently smoking ^[1]

Secondhand Smoke Causes Lung Cancer
Secondhand smoke causes lung cancer in adults who have never smoked.

• Nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke at home or at work increase their risk of developing lung cancer by 20–30%.
• Secondhand smoke causes more than 7,300 lung cancer deaths among U.S. nonsmokers each year.
• Nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke are inhaling many of the same cancer-causing substances and poisons as smokers.
• Even brief secondhand smoke exposure can damage cells in ways that set the cancer process in motion.
• As with active smoking, the longer the duration and the higher the level of exposure to secondhand smoke, the greater the risk of developing lung cancer. ^[5]

Smoke-free educational facilities except Universities ^[8]

Smoke Free Universities ^[8]

By combination last two analyses we can identify countries that don’t have smoke free educational facilities ^[8]

Countries that need to enforce smoking policies at schools ^[8]

TOBACCO ADVERTISING BANS

Advertising affects Tobacco Use

The tobacco industry spends billions of dollars each year to market its products. The industry uses a mix of advertising, promotion and sponsorship tactics to directly affect tobacco use and attitudes related to tobacco. Tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship:

• Promote tobacco use as customary and glamorous.
• Are deceptive and misleading.
• Weaken public health campaigns.
• Target specific populations such as women, youth, and minority groups.
• Increase tobacco consumption by:
  • Attracting new tobacco users.
  • Increasing the amount of consumption among current smokers.
  • Reducing a smoker’s willingness to quit.
  • Encouraging former smokers to start smoking again.

Through advertising of its products, the tobacco industry tries to create an environment in which tobacco use is familiar and socially acceptable, and the warnings about its health consequences are undermined. ^[11]

The tobacco industry uses all possible promotional channels

The pervasiveness of TAPS influences the population’s exposure to marketing messages and images. The tobacco industry uses all the communication channels it can reach. The public perceives the traditional mass media to be the most common promotional channels used by the tobacco industry. Whenever possible, tobacco companies do advertise their products on TV, radio and in print media such as newspapers, magazines, billboards and posters. However, as governments clamp down on tobacco advertising in traditional mass media, tobacco companies have turned to new media, including stealth marketing, with a viral effect to create a “buzz” about their products and brands. To prevent more people being lured into nicotine addiction by the tobacco industry’s new promotional tactics, policy-makers and, ultimately, the public need to be aware of the diversity of promotional tactics employed by the industry and of their tragic consequences. ^[10]

 

International Magazines and Newspapers Tobacco Advertising by Country ^[8]

International television and radio tobacco ads by country ^[8]

Internet Tobacco Advertising by Country ^[8]

Local Magazines and Newspapers Tobacco Advertising by Country ^[8]

National Television and Radio Tobacco Advertising by Country ^[8]

Point of Sale Tobacco Advertising by Country ^[8]

Tobacco Billboard and Outdoor Advertising by Country ^[8]

Stop tobacco industry manipulation. Ban TAPS!

Bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship are effective at reducing smoking

A comprehensive ban on all TAPS activities significantly reduces exposure to smoking cues resulting from tobacco advertising and promotion. This, in turn, significantly reduces the industry’s ability to continue promoting and selling its products, both to young people who have not yet started to use tobacco and to adult tobacco users who want to quit. Protecting people by restricting TAPS activities can substantially reduce tobacco consumption but only when such restrictions are comprehensive, and it does so regardless of the income level of the country. In high-income countries, such a ban decreases tobacco consumption by about 7%.

A comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship will raise the opposition of the tobacco industry, including court challenges. In February 2013, the Russian Federation approved a new law that included a ban on advertising, promotion and sponsorship. The tobacco industry tried unsuccessfully to stop its approval. In August 2012, a Government agency charged with vetting legislation and whose board of trustees is headed by the speaker of the lower house of Parliament reversed its initial support of the law, after having accepted a contract with a tobacco company. ^[10]

Countries that need more tobacco advertising bans ^[8]