Governance and public health: implications for targeting smoking in the United States

Purpose The purpose of this viewpoint is to discuss and analyze three major governance tools that have been implemented in the United States to target tobacco smoking as a major public health concern. Design/methodology/approach The author highlights the negative consequences of smoking as a global and U.S public health concern and discusses three categories of governance tools implemented in the U.S. Additionally, emerging challenges in the U.S. and different sides of story in developing countries are underscored. Findings Although some success has been reached in controlling smoking-related mortalities and morbidities in the U.S. and most of the countries, long-term and sustainable improvement require active surveillance and constant implementation of evidence-based policies and programs. Practical implications - This viewpoint discusses the governance tools that can be implemented to decrease smoking-related preventable mortalities and morbidities. Similar tools with some tuning can be used to target smoking in other nations. Additionally, these tools can be modified to target other public health-related wicked problems such as obesity, alcohol consumption, and traffic accidents. Originality/value This viewpoint highlights the magnitude of smoking as a major public health concern and underscores the necessity of using governance tools in targeting this issue. Additionally, it provides application examples from the United States implementable in other countries with some contextual justifications and tuning.