The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control’s 3rd Conference of the Parties (COP-3) was held in Durban, South Africa in November 2008. Attended by several hundred high-level health and diplomatic delegates from the more than 160 countries that have now ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the meeting was focused on developing guidelines for implementing the treaty’s provisions. For Perspectives this month, several attendees were invited to submit their impressions of the meeting (see below). My own impressions:

Looking over the wonderful photos by Andrew Kerr on the cover of this issue, I was struck by their contrast with a recent cover of the tobacco industry’s trade rag, Tobacco Reporter, which featured a photo from a global tobacco industry networking forum held …