TY - JOUR T1 - How smoking became history: looking back to 2012 JF - Tobacco Control JO - Tob Control SP - 289 LP - 290 DO - 10.1136/tc.2010.040873 VL - 21 IS - 2 AU - Richard A Daynard Y1 - 2012/03/01 UR - http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/21/2/289.abstract N2 - Geneva, 21 March 2032: As we all know, the work of tobacco control today is focused on reducing the prevalence and harm from non-smoked tobacco products, caring for ex-smokers with cigarette-caused diseases with long latencies and stamping out cigarette smuggling where it still arises. But many of our readers are old enough to have spent most of their tobacco control careers fighting cigarettes. They were facing over five million tobacco-related deaths in 2012, and the prospect of a billion such deaths this century, with cigarettes by far the main culprit. Many assumed that cigarettes would always be with us: indeed, the original Framework Convention on Tobacco Control focused on imposing warnings, prohibiting advertisements, raising taxes and protecting non-smokers from ‘secondhand smoke’ (what people used to be exposed to in the presence of combusted tobacco products). Indeed, they pursued every promising idea short of getting rid of cigarettes and other burned tobacco products. That just seemed a bridge too far.So what happened to make smoked tobacco products ‘history’ and thereby improve the health and life expectancy of millions of people around the world? The story will be familiar to most readers, but it is worth reviewing, especially for … ER -