Press Releases
ATLANTA – March 15, 2012 – Tobacco control experts from Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, South Africa, and the United Kingdom will be recognized at the 2012 Luther L. Terry Awards for Exemplary Leadership in Tobacco Control ceremony, which will take place at the 15th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health in Singapore on Wednesday March 21st at 18:00 SGT. The awards recognize outstanding global achievement in the field of tobacco control in six categories: outstanding individual leadership, outstanding organization, outstanding research contribution, exemplary leadership by a government ministry, distinguished career, and outstanding community service.
Australia’s Professor Michael Daube, will receive the Distinguished Career award; the Department of Health and Ageing of the Government of Australia will receive the award for Exemplary Leadership by a Government Ministry; Martin Raw, Ph.D., from the United Kingdom / Brazil and Yussuf Saloojee, Ph.D., from South Africa will receive awards for Outstanding Individual Leadership; the United Kingdom’s Action on Smoking and Health will receive the Outstanding Organization award; Canada’s Prabhat Jha, M.D., D.Phil., and Melanie Wakefield, Ph.D., of Australia will receive awards for Outstanding Research Contribution; and Mira Aghi, Ph.D., from India and Stan Shatenstein from Canada will receive awards for Outstanding Community Service. More information on the recipients’ achievements in the field of tobacco control is available at www.cancer.org/lutherterry.
“We are pleased to recognize these exemplary individuals who carry on the noble and incredibly important work of ending the deadly spread of tobacco around the globe,” said John R. Seffrin, Ph.D., chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society. “The existence of a global tobacco treaty – the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control – covering 90 percent of the world's population would have been unthinkable in 1964, and would have not become reality had it not been for the outstanding leadership of exceptional individuals and organizations like those receiving this distinguished award.”
The awards are named for the late United States Surgeon General Luther L. Terry, M.D., who led the landmark 1964 U.S. Surgeon General’s Report, which identified tobacco use as a cause of lung cancer and other illnesses. This report, coupled with the UK Royal College of Physicians Report in 1962, marked a turning point in addressing the global threat of tobacco use and disease, and has ushered in an era in which smoke-free environments, higher tobacco taxes, more tobacco dependence treatment, severe restrictions on tobacco advertising, and even graphic warning labels on tobacco packages are becoming more commonplace.
As reported by the World Health Organization, there remain approximately 1.3 billion smokers in the world – one-third of the global population aged 15 years and older. Eventually, 650 million of them will die from smoking. This number exceeds the expected number of deaths from AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, automobile accidents, maternal mortality, homicide, and suicide combined.
The American Cancer Society combines an unyielding passion with nearly a century of experience to save lives and end suffering from cancer. As a global grassroots force of more than three million volunteers, and with programs in more than 20 countries, we fight for every birthday threatened by cancer in communities worldwide. We save lives by helping people stay well by preventing cancer or detecting it early; by helping people get well by being there for them during and after a cancer diagnosis; by finding cures through investment in groundbreaking discovery; and by fighting back by rallying lawmakers to pass laws to defeat cancer and by rallying people across the globe to join the fight. As a global leader in cancer research investment, we turn what we know about cancer into what we do. To learn more or to get help, and for more information on our global programs, visit www.cancer.org/global.
For more information, contact Busola Afolabi, busola.afolabi@cancer.org 404-417-5894
###