TackSHS 2nd Annual Consortium Meeting held in Milan

TackSHS is a research project funded by the European Union’s H2020 Program, that aims to improve our understanding of second-hand tobacco smoke and e-cigarette emissions as well as to find ways of tackling the health burden caused by exposure to these aerosols.

The 2nd TackSHS Consortium Meeting held in Milan on 28-29 November 2016 gathered 30 specialists in tobacco control from six European countries at the Mario Negri Institute in Milan for a successful two-day meeting with detailed presentations on the progress of the project and discussions about its future development.

The multidisciplinary team of public health scientists, medical and environmental epidemiologists, occupational health specialists, respiratory physicians, health economists and policy experts from six European countries provided clear overviews of the activities carried out in each of the project’s 11 work packages and presented the work plans for the coming three years. In-depth discussions uncovered new possibilities for coordinating work across consortium partners and individual research objectives. TackSHS dissemination and publication activities were discussed and partners agreed on ensuring a strong role for dissemination and stakeholder involvement in the remaining three years of the project.

TackSHS aims at tackling secondhand tobacco smoke and e-cigarette emissions by assessing the exposure, impact on lung diseases and economic burden in diverse European populations and developing novel interventions. Within a fast changing environment, this project will try to elucidate the comprehensive impact that SHS and e-cigarette aerosols have on the European population and how health impacts vary according to socio-economic parameters with particular emphasis on specific vulnerable groups such as patients suffering from chronic lung diseases.
TackSHS is coordinated by the Catalan Institute of Oncology (Spain) and involves research institutes from six different European countries:

• Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona (Spain).
• Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche “Mario Negri” (Italy).
• The University of Aberdeen (United Kingdom).
• TobaccoFree Research Institute Ireland LBG (Ireland).
• Hellenic Cancer Society (Greece).
• Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori (Italy).
• Istituto per lo Studio e la Prevenzione Oncologica (Italy).
• Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena (Spain).
• European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention (Belgium).
• Fundación para le Investigación Biomédica del Hospital Universitario la Princesa (Spain).

Amongst the 11 organizations, Tobacco Control Unit of the Catalan Institute of Oncology is in charge of the overall project coordination and the study aimed to investigate the environmental and bystanders’ exposure to second-hand aerosols (SHA) from electronic cigarette use in confined spaces, which involves:

• Systematic review on SHA from electronic cigarette.
• Experimental study to characterize SHA exposure in cars and rooms.
• Observational study to characterize SHA in homes.

For additional information please contact:

• Dr Esteve Fernández, Project Coordinator at the Catalan Institute of Oncology. E-mail: efernandez@iconcologia.net
• Dominick Nguyen, Dissemination Coordinator at the European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention. E-mail: dominick.nguyen@ensp.org