• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.23-34
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• 2016

South Korea's state health insurer, the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS), is in the process of a compensation suit against tobacco industry. The tobacco companies have habitually endeavored to ensure favorable outcomes in litigation by misusing scientific evidence or recruiting scientists to support its interests. This study analyzed strategies that tobacco companies have used during the NHIS litigation, which has been receiving world-wide attention. To understand the litigation strategies of tobacco companies, the present study reviewed the existing literature and carried out content analysis of petitions, preparatory documents, and supporting evidence submitted to the court by the NHIS and the tobacco companies during the suit. Tobacco companies misrepresented the World Health Organization (WHO) report's argument and misused scientific evidence, and removed the word "deadly" from the title of the citation. Tobacco companies submitted the research results of scientists who had worked as a consultant for the tobacco industry as evidence. Such litigation strategies employed by the tobacco companies internationally were applied similarly in Korean lawsuits. Results of tobacco litigation have a huge influence on tobacco control policies. For desirable outcomes of the suits, healthcare professionals need to pay a great deal of attention to the enormous volume of written opinions and supporting evidence that tobacco companies submit. They also need to face the fact that the companies engage in recruitment of scientists. Healthcare professionals should refuse to partner with tobacco industry, as recommended by Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-28
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• 2012

Since its establishment in 1948, World Health Organization (WHO) has tried and facilitated international cooperation of public health under the goal of "the highest attainable health," and gained outcomes like the eradication of smallpox and polio, turning itself into the representative of international public health. However, there was discord between member nations during the cold war era, and the status of WHO experienced rise and fall after its establishment. WHO, the representative international health organization, also has not been freed from influences from international regime changes, which means that the discussion on the internal causes of WHO functionings should be expanded more. In this study, functionalism was tested as one of international relations theory that tries to explain the establishment and role of WHO. Especially, this study analyzed the problems and problem-solving process that WHO had to face by using Imber's five steps theory that arranged chronologically the theory of Mitrany. We mainly investigated the secondary source that described historic facts on the rise and fall of WHO in terms of roles and functionings during establishment of WHO, the cold war era, and international cooperation of public health. The roles of WHO were analyzed by selecting the gains of WHO in the post cold war era. The functionalism arrangement of Imber was appropriate to some extent in explaining the establishment and role of WHO. The first step was International Sanitary Conference in 1851 that made nations to recognize international cooperation of public health, and the second step was the establishment of WHO that handles public health as an international organization. Recent cases of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and International Health Regulations showed that each nation agreed with an international norm that they had to cooperate each other to tackle infectious diseases and smoking, and this implies that these were emergence of global governance. This process was the third step of Imber's theory (nations had a gain from international cooperation would agree with the expansion of authority of international organization). However, the last two steps of the theory are still not realized. The partial success of WHO was based on the functional elements that WHO deals with non-political elements, human resources centering on professionals, and democratic decision making process. This essential and non-political characteristics mean that necessity of international cooperation catalyzed by WHO would continue despite of the global governance era when global health governance get faced more challenges.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.33 no.12
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• pp.1046-1051
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• 2023

Cigarette smoking is one of the major causes of preventable diseases, disability, and death in Korea and worldwide. It has been clearly linked to the most common causes of death among the elderly and contributes to morbidity and disability associated with many chronic illnesses that are common in this age group. The health benefits of smoking cessation for the elderly have been clearly demonstrated. However, few studies have analyzed the relationship between health and smoking by considering the following many factors, especially among disabled people. In this study, we discuss the impacts of many factors on smoking among disabled people. Adults with disabilities are more likely to smoke than their peers. Public health agencies and practitioners should consider what reasonable adjustments may need to be made to policies and interventions to ensure that they are effective for adults with disabilities.