Word count: 599 (not counting abstract, main table with evidence, references or footnotes to table). 2 ABSTRACT Objective:Over twenty experts on economics, epidemiology, public policy and tobacco control were asked by the International Agency for Research on Cancer to evaluate the strength of the available evidence on the effects of tax and price policies to prevent and reduce tobacco use. Methods:Draft papers presenting and assessing the evidence on the following topics were developed by the experts in an eight months period prior to the meeting: tobacco industry pricing strategies and tax related lobbying; tax, price and aggregate demand for tobacco; tax, price and adult tobacco use, use among young people and use among the poor; tax avoidance and tax evasion; and the economic, and health impact of tobacco taxation. Subsequently, papers were peerreviewed, revised and re-submitted for final discussion at a six-day meeting at IARC in Lyon where a consensus evaluation of 18 concluding statements using the pre-established criteria of the IARC Cancer Prevention Handbooks took place. Studies published (or accepted for publication) in the openly available scientific literature were the main source of evidence for the review and evaluation; other types of publications were included when appropriate.

The evidence base for the benefit of quitting smoking as regards morbidity and mortality outcomes in patients with moderate-to-severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is limited.The present article is a review of the existing literature. A systematic literature search in medical databases was performed until March 2006, and subsequently until September 1, 2007. The outcomes examined were COPD-related morbidity and mortality (including all-cause mortality) in COPD patients in connection with smoking cessation.A total of 21 and 27 published articles on morbidity and mortality, respectively, were identified and reviewed. For both outcomes, only a few of the studies included patients with severe COPD. Most of the studies reported a beneficial effect of smoking cessation compared with continued smoking, whereas a few found no improvement. Methodological problems, including small study sizes, poor data quality, possibility of reverse causality and incomplete ascertainment of cause of death, limit interpretation of some of the studies.The evidence as a whole supports the conclusion that, even in severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, smoking cessation slows the accelerated rate of lung function decline and improves survival compared with continued smoking.

This overview describes the principles of the 4th edition of the European Code against Cancer and provides an introduction to the 12 recommendations to reduce cancer risk. Among the 504.6 million inhabitants of the member states of the European Union (EU28), there are annually 2.64 million new cancer cases and 1.28 million deaths from cancer. It is estimated that this cancer burden could be reduced by up to one half if scientific knowledge on causes of cancer could be translated into successful prevention. The Code is a preventive tool aimed to reduce the cancer burden by informing people how to avoid or reduce carcinogenic exposures, adopt behaviours to reduce the cancer risk, or to participate in organised intervention programmes. The Code should also form a base to guide national health policies in cancer prevention. The 12 recommendations are: not smoking or using other tobacco products; avoiding second-hand smoke; being a healthy body weight; encouraging physical activity; having a healthy diet; limiting alcohol consumption, with not drinking alcohol being better for cancer prevention; avoiding too much exposure to ultraviolet radiation; avoiding cancer-causing agents at the workplace; reducing exposure to high levels of radon; encouraging breastfeeding; limiting the use of hormone replacement therapy; participating in organised vaccination programmes against hepatitis B for newborns and human papillomavirus for girls; and participating in organised screening programmes for bowel cancer, breast cancer, and cervical cancer.

Colorectal cancer is a important public health problem: there are nearly one million new cases of colorectal cancer diagnosed world-wide each year and half a million deaths. Recent reports show that, in the US, it was the most frequent form of cancer among persons aged 75 years and older. Given that the majority of cancers occur in elder people and with the ageing of the population in mind, this observation gives further impetus to investigating prevention and treatment strategies among this subgroup of the population. Screening research, recommendations and implementation is an obvious priority. While there are many questions to be resolved, it is apparent that many facets of colorectal cancer are becoming increasingly understood and prospects for prevention are becoming apparent. Achieving colorectal cancer control is the immediate challenge.

This paper describes results from a systematic review and a series of meta-analyses of nearly three decades worth of epidemiologic research on the relationship between non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and occupational exposure to agricultural pesticide active ingredients and chemical groups. Estimates of associations of NHL with 21 pesticide chemical groups and 80 active ingredients were extracted from 44 papers, all of which reported results from analyses of studies conducted in high-income countries. Random effects meta-analyses showed that phenoxy herbicides, carbamate insecticides, organophosphorus insecticides and the active ingredient lindane, an organochlorine insecticide, were positively associated with NHL. In a handful of papers, associations between pesticides and NHL subtypes were reported; B cell lymphoma was positively associated with phenoxy herbicides and the organophosphorus herbicide glyphosate. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma was positively associated with phenoxy herbicide exposure. Despite compelling evidence that NHL is associated with certain chemicals, this review indicates the need for investigations of a larger variety of pesticides in more geographic areas, especially in low- and middle-income countries, which, despite producing a large portion of the world’s agriculture, were missing in the literature that were reviewed.