Air Pollution inside Vehicles: Making a Bad Situation Worse.

Thailand has successfully forwarded Article 8, Protection from Exposure to Tobacco Smoke, of the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). It achieved its 100% smoke-free goals in public places in 2010, next pursuing other bans in outdoor places to lower particulate matter air pollution (PM). Our aim was to expose the secondhand smoke levels in vehicles since SHS is a danger to everyone, but especially to children and youth.

Electronic Cigarette Harms: Aggregate Evidence Shows Damage to Biological Systems.

Evidence of the harms of e-cigarettes has been unfolding slowly and has been documented in many reviews and reports worldwide. A narrative review of new evidence is presented since, as research has continued, newly aggregated evidence of the dangers of electronic cigarettes on the brain, heart, and lungs is vital to inform decisions on restricting the use of e-cigarettes. Several biomedical research databases were searched for electronic cigarette health effects, emphasizing reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses.

Uncovering Philip Morris International's Fundamental Strategies for Product Placement in Thailand: Spotlighting Industry Penetration to Advance the Endgame.

Background: Tobacco companies and their associated businesses know that placement - where one can see and purchase their products - is critical to their success. Placement is one of the four fundamental Ps of marketing along with product, price and promotion. Placement includes identifying retail locations in important places such as in shopping districts, within neighborhoods, near schools, at beaches, and in parks.

Case Study of Tobacco Use among Myanmar Migrant Factory Workers in the Seafood Industry in Thailand.

Migrant workers commonly face many health disparities when they relocate to a foreign work environment. Many workers migrating to Thailand are young unskilled workers from Myanmar. In this study, we examine factors associated with Myanmar migrant workers' smoking status and characterized smoking-related knowledge, attitudes, and behavior in one seafood factory in Thailand.

Cigarette Waste in Popular Beaches in Thailand: High Densities that Demand Environmental Action.

Thailand, like all nations, has a responsibility to initiate environmental actions to preserve marine environments. Low- and middle-income countries face difficulties implementing feasible strategies to fulfill this ambitious goal. To contribute to the revitalization of Thailand's marine ecosystems, we investigated the level of tobacco product waste (TPW) on Thailand's public beaches.

Secondhand smoke point-source exposures assessed by particulate matter at two popular public beaches in Thailand.

Background: Throughout Asia, smoking is commonplace at crowded public beaches. Evidence has clearly shown the dangers of secondhand smoke (SHS) indoors, but no naturalistic studies have determined levels of SHS in outdoor air.

Methods: We measured SHS exposure at two public beaches in Thailand where families lounge in beach chairs under beach umbrellas.

Three-month effects of Project EX: A smoking intervention pilot program with Thai adolescents.

Adolescent smoking is a major public health problem around the world, including Thailand. The current study provides a three-month follow-up evaluation of the Project EX tobacco use cessation program among Thai adolescents. The intervention was tested involving a quasi-experimental trial with 185 smokers, with two program and two control condition schools (within each condition, one school in Bangkok Province and one school in Nakhon Pathom Province).

How Thailand's greater convergence created sustainable funding for emerging health priorities caused by globalization.

Background: Global health is shifting gradually from a limited focus on individual communicable disease goals to the formulation of broader sustainable health development goals. A major impediment to this shift is that most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have not established adequate sustainable funding for health promotion and health infrastructure.

Objective: In this article, we analyze how Thailand, a middle-income country, created a mechanism for sustainable funding for health.

Determining the burden of secondhand smoke exposure on the respiratory health of Thai children.

Background: The impact of secondhand smoke (SHS) on Southeast Asian children's health has been assessed by a limited number of studies. The purpose of this study was to determine whether in Thailand, pre- and postnatal exposure to SHS is associated with acute lower respiratory conditions in young children.

Methods: We conducted a case control study of 462 children under age five admitted with acute lower respiratory illnesses, including asthma and pneumonia, at a major hospital in Bangkok.

Success counteracting tobacco company interference in Thailand: an example of FCTC implementation for low- and middle-income countries.

Transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) interfere regularly in policymaking in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control provides mechanisms and guidance for dealing with TTC interference, but many countries still face 'how to' challenges of implementation. For more than two decades, Thailand's public health community has been developing a system for identifying and counteracting strategies TTCs use to derail, delay and undermine tobacco control policymaking.

Building tobacco control research in Thailand: meeting the need for innovative change in Asia.

Introduction: In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) over the past two decades locally relevant tobacco control research has been scant. Experience shows that tobacco control measures should be based on sound research findings to ensure that measures are appropriate for local conditions and that they are likely to have an impact. Research should also be integrated within tobacco control measures to ensure ongoing learning and the production of knowledge.

Smoking prevalence among monks in Thailand.

Previous studies among Buddhist monks in Thailand have reported smoking rates to be as high as 55%. Because 95% of Thais are Buddhist, monks are highly influential in establishing normative behavioral patterns. As the first population-based study on smoking among Buddhist monks in Thailand, this study aims to determine the smoking prevalence in six regions of the country, and to examine smoking knowledge, risk perceptions, behaviors, and associated demographics among full-fledged and novice monks (n = 6,213).

Tobacco control: lessons learnt in Thailand.

This review of legislation, obstacles faced, and challenges to be met, outlines present tobacco control lessons learnt in Thailand. A review of over twenty years of tobacco control experience in Thailand is provided in seven areas including policy formulation and the role of civil society, as well as in essential WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control areas. A descriptive, historical review shows how stakeholders, policies and resources were mobilized in Thailand, and what lessons resource-challenged countries might use from the Thai experience.

Cryptosporidium and Giardia detection in environmental waters of southwest coastal areas of Thailand.

The aim of this study was to investigate water samples collected in coastal areas of Southern Thailand in the years of 2005 and 2008 for their contamination by the protozoan parasites Cryptosporidium and Giardia. One hundred eighteen water samples of different origin were collected from six Tsunami affected southern provinces of Thailand in early 2005, and they have been analyzed using standardized methodology. Fifteen out of 118 samples (12.