Javed takes Manhattan

Oh dear, we haven't heard the last of Javed Khan.

I had hoped the author of The Khan review: making smoking obsolete would quietly exit the stage, especially after the resignation of health secretary Sajid Javid who commissioned the ill-judged report.

Instead Dr Khan is one of several UK-based speakers who have been invited to address a new conference – 'New Approaches to Tobacco Control' – at the Harvard Club of New York next month.

Given that Dr Khan's recommendations are no more than that and the UK Government has given no hint that it will adopt any of them, it seems a bit presumptuous for his 'keynote' address ('The Khan Review in a Global Perspective - The UK as Case Study on Tobacco Control') to be given such a grand title but it must be very flattering for someone who was unheard of as a tobacco control influencer only six months ago.

He's also taking part in a panel discussion ('How Can the Best Practices from the UK and the US FDA be Globalized to End Smoking in All Countries'?) so it looks like we'll never hear the end of it, or him.

'New Approaches to Tobacco Control' is a new addition to the tobacco control circuit and joining Khan on the roster of speakers are several other familiar faces – John Dunne, for example, director-general of the UK Vaping Association, and Patricia Kovacevic, without whom no tobacco conference would be complete.

But the most intriguing speaker is arguably Brittany Kaiser who is described as a 'human rights activist and whistleblower'. According to her bio:

She is a best-selling author of Targeted, and is the main subject of Emmy-nominated documentary 'The Great Hack', both works relating to her experience as a whistleblower during her time as Director of Program Development at Cambridge Analytica. She has led the Own Your Data Foundation, focusing on training governments, corporate entities and families on digital literacy, and also assists in legislative drafting and lobbying for laws that protect individual rights.

I'm not sure how most of that relates to tobacco control but I would be interested nevertheless to hear what she has to say.

Likewise I would like to hear some of the other speakers, most of whom are unfamiliar to me but that's a good thing because one of the reasons I don't attend many tobacco-related conferences these days is that the same speakers are booked time after time and there are only so many times I want to hear them.

Annoyingly 'New Approaches to Tobacco Control' takes place on Monday September 19, one week before the annual Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum (GTNF) in Washington DC and I have neither the time nor the money to attend both.

Nevertheless I'll keep an eye on it – and Dr Khan's bid to take Manhattan (and the world). Watch this space!

PS. Co-chairing the NY event is Derek Yach, 'founder and [former] president of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World and a former executive director of the Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health at the World Health Organization (WHO) where Dr Yach led the development of WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)'.

I don't know how I missed it but I was unaware until yesterday that Yach stood down as president of the PMI-funded organisation last October and ten months later the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World is still being run by two interim co-presidents with no further announcement concerning a permanent replacement.

Yach – who announced a new job on LinkedIn this week – is also listed as a speaker at GTNF in Washington so I must ask him what's going on.

Comments

[Pat Nurse]

The easiest and least deserving way to make a name for oneself these days is to bash a smoker and design ways to make their lives as difficult as possible while encouraging the public to get aboard the hate and exclusion campaign. Stand up for honest principles and the decency of inclusion and freedom from harassment and you're nobody.

The vain and inglorious know exactly which side they need to be on for fame and recognition but it is a shame that it is not the side of right.

[Bucko]

Is the title a reference to Friday 13th? ;-)

[Simon]

As in Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan? A happy coincidence!