Luk Joossens: My name is Luk Joossens. I am a sociologist and for almost 25 years I have been involved in tobacco control in Belgium and 15 years in European and global tobacco control. I started in 1977 by doing research on the effectiveness of antitobacco campaigns and made visits to the Netherlands, UK and France. In the UK, I met for instance Mike Daube, Director of ASH and Martin Raw, a cessation specialist. In 1979 I became interested in the legislative aspects of tobacco control and started to lobby for a ban on tobacco advertising in Belgium. My main interests in tobacco control were clear: economics, politics and lobbying. In 1988 my life as a activist changed as I was approached by the European Commission to create an information office on smoking prevention in Brussels. In 1988, BASP was created: The European Bureau for action on smoking prevention. I became the Director and was also a consultant to the European Commission on smoking prevention. Wonderful times and a direct contact with the Commission on all aspects of tobacco control in the EU and with all the smoking prevention organizations in the countries of the European Community.

Website: http://www.tobacco.org/