Accelerated adoption of smoke-free laws after FCTC, but effect is fading: Need renewed action protect all from secondhand smoke

Randy Uang, Hekki Hiilamo, and I just published "Accelerated Adoption of Smoke-Free Laws After Ratification of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control" in American Journal of Public Health.  As the title indicates, the FCTC had a measureable effect on implementation of smokefree laws around the world, but the effect is fading.  It is time for renewed efforts to pass and implement smokefree laws.  Well-implemented smokefree laws are the most effective tobacco control intervention because they signifify perminant social change.*
 
Objectives. We sought to evaluate the effect of ratifying the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) on countries enacting smoke-free laws covering indoor workplaces, restaurants, and bars.
 
Methods. We compared adoption of smoke-free indoor workplace, restaurant, and bar laws in countries that did versus did not ratify the FCTC, accounting for years since the ratification of the FCTC and for countries’ World Bank income group.
 
Results. Ratification of the FCTC significantly (P  
Conclusions. The FCTC accelerated the adoption of smoke-free indoor workplace, restaurant, and bar laws, with the greatest effect in the years immediately following ratification. The policy implication is that health advocates must increase efforts to secure implementation of FCTC smoke-free provisions in countries that have not done so. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print November 12, 2015: e1–e6. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2015.302872)
 
The full paper is available here.
 
* I know that the economists like to say that taxes are the most effective intervention.  That is true for large tax increases, but most are small.  A smokefree law has about the same effect as a $2 tax increase.