The American Cancer Society announced the opening of the call for nominations of the Luther L. Terry Awards for Exemplary Leadership in Tobacco Control on 14 April 2008. Named for the late United States Surgeon General Luther L. Terry, M.D., whose groundbreaking work established the foundation for public health scrutiny of the dangers of tobacco use, the awards honour outstanding leadership and accomplishment, are synonymous with excellence, and signify that the recipients are among the very best in the world at what they do. The awards will be presented at the 14th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health, in Mumbai, India on 11 March 2009.

Presented triennially, the Luther L. Terry Awards recognise outstanding worldwide achievement in the field of tobacco control. The 2009 awards will debut a new category, Outstanding Community Service, in addition to the five categories from the 2006 awards: Outstanding Individual Leadership, Outstanding Organisation, Outstanding Research Contribution, Exemplary Leadership by a Government Ministry, and Distinguished Career.

To nominate a candidate, please download an application from the official Luther L. Terry Awards website and submit it via email to lutherterry@cancer.org.

This report was compiled by Luk Joosens (Tobacco Control Manager, Belgian Foundation against Cancer and Advocacy Officer, Association of the European Cancer Leagues) and Martin Raw (Special Lecturer in Public Health Science, University of Nottingham, England) and was presented at the 4th European Conference Tobacco or Health 2007, Basel, Switzerland, 11-13 October 2007.

On 30 November 2006, the European Parliament voted on the 7th Research Framework Programme (FP7) which specifies European research areas and objectives from 2007 to 2013 with a budget of more than € 54 billion. The vote took place in line with the Council’s position, so the Programme will come into force 1st January 2007. The International Primary Care Respiratory Group (IPCRG) and the European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients Associations (EFA) are therefore very pleased that "respiratory diseases including those induced by allergies" are now part of the priority list as they had asked for, and that food allergies are covered in the food safety theme of the Programme.

Decree 2006-1386, dated 15 November 2006, outlines the technical aspects of the smoking ban in France: as of 1 February 2007 workplaces became smoke-free; on 1 January 2008 cafés, restaurants, bars, discos, nightclubs, casinos and hotels likewise became smoke-free.

INWAT Europe held an expert seminar on second-hand smoke and women from 30-21 March 2005. The purpose of this seminar was to bring together experts on women’s smoking, inequalities and gender to examine the issues of smoke-free policy changes from a European perspective, as the adverse health effects of second-hand smoke on women are a key issue for women’s health. The seminar concluded with a meeting comprising INWAT Europe Advisory Board members, which drew up recommendations for The Way Forward for future policy development, health promotion and research at European level. The recommendations aim to advance the issue of women and second-hand smoke by effectively developing research, programming and policy.