Jump to full article: Earth Times, 2009-04-12
Author: Author : DPA
Intro: A Hong Kong anti-smoking campaigner who for a quarter of a century has been a thorn in the side of the tobacco industry in Asia was Sunday celebrating a major international award for her crusading work. Dr Judith Mackay, labeled one of the three most dangerous people in the world in a leaked tobacco industry document in the 1980s, has received the British Medical Journal Group's first ever lifetime achievement award.
She topped a poll of 10 shortlisted candidates including world-famous heart surgeon Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub, pioneering US kidney doctor Dr Robert William Shrier and Indian rural health campaigner Dr Hanumappa Sudarshan.
The prestigious publication, which attracted more than 7,000 votes for its poll, praised Mackay for her "tireless and courageous campaigning on behalf of patients and public health."
She has been fighting for tougher tobacco controls in Asia since 1984.
The award recognized her as "one of the first tobacco control advocates in Asia" and said she had played a "leading role" in advancing public policy, articulating the harms of tobacco and "exposing the nefarious tactics of the tobacco industry."
Jump to full article » |