Within most European populations, smoking prevalence rates differ substantially according to people’s level of education, income or occupation. In European countries, smoking inequalities are generally high, and smoking is the largest single contributor to socio-economic inequalities in mortality. Significant inequalities in smoking are now emerging in all European countries, especially amongst young people. Tobacco products and secondhand smoke (SHS) kill, as documented in over 20 reports (eg: IARC, US Surgeon General). Exposure to SHS causes around 79.000 deaths every year in the EU, including:- Deaths from lung cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke and chronic non-neoplastic respiratory disease; - Deaths in childhood - Significant morbidity, both acute and chronicSpecial Eurobarometer 429/2015 indicates that almost one third of European citizens currently smoke, including cigarettes, cigars and pipes. As smoking is responsible for half the difference in deaths across socio-economic groups, tobacco control has a major role to play in reducing health and social inequalities in Europe.With an increased capacity within its Secretariat, ENSP has the challenging task in 2016 to locally support its network members in the implementation of the TPD 2014/40/EU after its transposition into national laws by the month of May 2016. With activities based on scientific evidence and academic research, including a scientific committee, a new peer reviewed journal and a network of universities involved in tobacco control, ENSP has all the necessary competences and expertise to create a real impact in the de-normalisation of tobacco use in Europe. Remaining the only structured network specifically dedicated to tobacco control at European level, its work highly contributes to the comprehensive coordination of national and international tobacco control initiatives. ENSP 2016 work programme contributes to its wider 3-year strategy.
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The Project AHEAD will address the challenge of medical deserts and medical desertification in Europe in an effort to help reduce health inequalities. The Project’s objective is to provide support to policy makers in selected Member States and other eligible countries to define, design and implement evidence-based and context-specific reforms in the health workforce field that specifically aim to counteract and/or prevent medical deserts. The approach applied in this Project will build knowledge, encourage (digital) innovation in health service delivery to improve access and apply a participatory approach to public health policy making. The Project will be carried out in Romania, Serbia, Moldova, Italy and the Netherlands and will benefit health policy makers, patients’ organizations, health professionals’ organisations, affected communities and more. The countries were carefully selected to highlight different manifestations of medical deserts and to address interconnectedness as a result of health worker mobility. Activities include: desk research; participatory action research; multi-stakeholder consensus building dialogues; high-level policy dialogues at national and EU level. The dissemination of the Projects’ knowledge products and best practices is a cross-cutting activity, aiming to also inspire duty bearers outside the Project. The consortium will produce several deliverables: policy briefs; a set of contextualized and feasible policy solutions to address medical deserts in the countries; an improved definition and taxonomy of medical deserts; a medical deserts diagnostic monitoring tool; a prototype for a medical deserts visual mapping tool; a tested and replicable approach for participatory health policy making. Our ultimate impact at society and EU level is better access to health services, especially in underserved areas, and more equitable access to sufficient, skilled and motivated health workers, starting with the countries involved in the Project.
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Within most European populations, smoking prevalence rates differ substantially according to people’s educational level, occupational class and income level. In the European countries, smoking inequalities are generally largest, and smoking is the largest single contributor to socio-economic inequalities in mortality. Significant inequalities in smoking are now emerging in all European countries, especially in the youngest generations. Tobacco products and secondhand smoke (SHS) kill, as documented in over 20 reports (eg: IARC, US Surgeon General). Exposure to SHS kills at least 79 000 people in the EU each year, incl. deaths from lung cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke and chronic non-neoplastic respiratory disease; plus deaths in childhood caused by SHS, deaths in adults from other conditions known to be caused by active smoking and the significant, serious morbidity, both acute and chronic, caused by SHS. Special Eurobarometer 385/2012 indicates that almost one third of European citizens currently smoke either cigarettes, cigars or a pipe. As smoking is responsible for half the difference in deaths across socio-economic groups, tobacco control has a major role to play in reducing health and social inequalities.ENSP plays a major role in Europe to prevent the tobacco industry from biaising and slowing down the tobacco control process. Indeed, ENSP was created for a tighter collaboration within the tobacco control community and for a stronger and united civil society action against tobacco. Key objectives during 2015-2017:- The support to the Directive 2014/40/EU and FCTC implementation- The facilitation of the creation and the operation of national alliances for tobacco control in Europe.- The stimulation of and the participation in European projects - The facilitation of networking in Europe- The collection and distribution of informationEuropean Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention 2015-2017: connecting, sharing, advocating to save lives!
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