The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Recognising the adverse impact of tobacco use, both on human health and on the economic and social health of local communities, CIFAL Lyon wishes to explore the potential of training packages, resources and network opportunities to support the introduction of local smoke free policies and programmes. CIFAL-Lyon is an associated centre of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), as well as a non-governmental association chaired by the Mayor of Lyon. As part of the global network of training centres, the CIFAL Network, CIFAL-Lyon is responsible for implementing the United Nations' Decentralized Cooperation Programme (DCP). In association with UICC and IARC, CIFAL Lyon convened a meeting of international tobacco control experts in November 2005 leading to the establishment of an Interim Advisory Group. The following objectives were agreed for the scoping initial exercise: -to identify potentially interested partners (mainly but not exclusively at municipal level) -to liaise with existing tobacco control interests (to maximise added value and avoid duplication) -to propose appropriate baseline data and outcome indicators -to recommend strategies to secure the active participation of municipalities in the pilot phase -to develop a project proposal for the short term and longer term. This paper presents evidence of the findings about potential interest in a worldwide smoke free municipalities network, examples of existing city networks concerned with health or related topics, declarations of interest in joining the initiative, as well as pros and cons as regards to a potential smoke free cities network.