Reflections on the ‘endgame’ for tobacco control

The concept of an ‘endgame ’ for tobacco control efforts is receiving increasing attention in advocacy, policy and academic circles. This may strike some as entirely premature in countries such as Bangladesh, where 63 % of adults are exposed to secondhand smoke in the workplace,1 or the Russian Federation, where 60 % of adult men still smoke.2 Nonetheless, experts in countries like Australia and New Zealand, with a decades-long commit-ment to comprehensive tobacco control, have grown increasingly serious about the so-called ‘endgame’. Numerous potential endgame strategies are being explored, the most prominent of which are