Tracking Tobacco Control Measures in Southeast Asia

The overall goal of this project was to build capacity in tracking and surveillance of tobacco control measures through development and use of data collection instruments and identification of industry activities that run counter to tobacco control. Four priority areas for surveillance were chosen:

• secondhand smoke
• point-of-purchase marketing
• philanthropy
• product labeling and regulation

IGTC provided ongoing mentoring and technical support to 12 surveillance research projects in the region.

Tracking Point-of-Purchase Advertising

• Sin Sovann, National Center for Health Promotion, Cambodia
• Do Thi Phi, International Development Enterprises, Vietnam
• Naowarut Charoenca, Mahidol University, Thailand
• Khor Yoke Lim, University Sains Malaysia, Malaysia

Tracking Secondhand Smoke Protection Efforts

• Yel Daravuth, ADRA, Cambodia
• Nguyen Hoai An, PATH Canada, Vietnam
• Naowarut Charoenca, Mahidol University, Thailand
• Foong Kin, University Sains Malaysia, Malaysia

Tracking Cigarette Package Labeling

• Samrech Phauk, Lidee Khmer, Cambodia
• Dang Huy Hoang, Vietnam Committee on Smoking and Health, Vietnam
• Maizurah O. Azam, University Sains Malaysia, Malaysia

Tracking Philanthropy

• Steve Hamann, Rangsit University, Thailand

All 12 surveillance research projects were completed in September 2003 and results were presented at the Asian-Pacific Conference on Tobacco and Health (APACT) in Korea in September 2004. IGTC faculty and staff continue to work with the surveillance researchers to prepare two manuscripts: a synthesis of lessons learned from pilot implementation of a regional tracking and surveillance system for tobacco control measurements, and pooling the point-of-purchase data and surveillance results from the four countries.