A national plan aiming to protect people from secondhand smoke in 63 cities and 63 villages over the course of five years has just piloted in the central city of Qom. Following Article 8 of the Convention on Tobacco Control of the World Health Organization to protect people from tobacco use and reduce its side effects, Iran declared Qom city as the country's first “tobacco-free city”. This five-year program will eventually launch in 63 cities and 63 selected villages of the country, however, it is probably can cover the whole cities, Behzad Valizadeh, head of the National Secretariat of Tobacco Control said.

The term was coined by an economist to explain why those with seemingly opposing interests can sometimes find themselves in accord with one another. His example was how those campaigning for Prohibition found unwitting common cause with bootleggers whose fortunes were made with the passing of the Volstead Act. Regarding the battle over vaping, it’s more to do with the Baptists aiding the bootleggers to preserve their existing mega bucks.

The narrative constructed by those who oppose tobacco harm reduction (THR) through the use of safer nicotine products (SNP) is that the whole business is a Big Tobacco ploy to hook kids on nicotine through the promotion of cool products in order to compensate for falling cigarette sales. Campaigners, the medical establishment and politicians have convinced themselves that prohibition of SNP will be a notable victory against Big Tobacco machinations.

Covid-19 has surely been challenging for all, and though we have now hopefully crossed the peak, we will be seeing its implications for many months or even years to come. We are already seeing the negative impact of the lockdown and economic uncertainty on society’s mental health. Stress and boredom are known triggers for increased smoking and this is likely to predispose people to more addictive behaviours such as smoking and drinking alcohol. In these unprecedented times, we need to

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