From Dec. 2^nd to Dec. 7^th, the 46^th Union World Conference on Lung Health organized by the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease was held in Cape Town, Africa, and Prof. Tingzhong Yang from the Tobacco Controlling Center, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, attended the conference. During his stay there, Prof. Yang also conducted research in the local low-income families and mastered preliminary knowledge of their current situation and problem of consumption of tobacco and alcohol. After analyzing and reporting the problem, the Tobacco Controlling Center was introduced by World Health Organization (WHO) to collaborate with research institute in Texas US to establish a research base. The base will be aimed to conduct intercultural research about the problem of consumption of tobacco and alcohol to hopefully solve the problem among different cultures and promote the health of the population.

The Tobacco Controlling Center, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, which is a research institute, was founded in 2007. Experts from different disciplines have been devoted to the center which is mainly aiming at probing Chinese culture friendly tobacco controlling methods and tools from the perspective of social behavior. Since the establishing of the center, it has been responsible for several international projects including WHO and Global Bridge as well as national key projects including Natural Science Foundation of China. In addition, the center has published over 50 research papers, and several of them have been cited in WHO reports.