FAQ

What is TobaccoUnmasked (TU) Hotspots?

TobaccoUnmasked (TU) HotSpots is a trilingual GIS based tobacco surveillance system to monitor Tobacco Industry Interference and Activities (TIIA) in public health. Activists, government officials and other stakeholders in tobacco control and general public are encouraged to use TU HotSpots to identify and report TIIA.

What is Tobacco Industry Interference (TII)?

TII is any action by the tobacco industry or its allies, friends and front groups to impact on public health in order to create an environment more amenable to their commercial interests.

Who developed the TU HotSpots?

TU HotSpots is developed by the WHO-FCTC sanctioned Sri Lankan tobacco observatory, [www.cct.lk Centre for Combating Tobacco (CCT)] at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo.

Who can use TU Hotspots?

Anyone can use TU HotSpots creating a log in account and using it. Once you have a HotSpots account, you have free access to the interactive TU HotSpost map and media dash board in the last three months. TU HotSpots is totally free!

How to use TU Hotspots?

Create a log in account by following the simple instructions and prompts. Select the correct category you would like to report. Complete the fields of the entry and submit. You are done.

What kind of instances of TIIA can be reported?

When you log in to https://gismap.tobaccounmasked.com/ website, you will see the reporting categories which TIIA can be reported.

Hotspots
Geographical locations of TIIA including targeting children/youth, sales to persons < 21 years, Abhisheka shops, Mobile /Temporary shops, Unlicensed /illicit trade, Influencing vendors, Free distribution, Advertisements, Display /Promotions at the shops, Sponsorships / Promotions, Influencing political leaders, Targeting females, Interfering in tobacco control and Influencing farmers.
Media
TIIA, such as showing cigarette use or cigarette brand logos, which is known as product placement, in cinema, books, television, radio, newspapers, magazines, social media(Face Book, Twitter, WhatsApp, Viber, Imo), music videos, Websites, YouTube etc.
Interference
Targeting individuals by offering research grants, travel grants, gifts, tours/site visits, workshops/seminar/training and by inviting to their events. Tobacco industry may have contacted you or somebody you know of. Then please make sure that it is reported here.

What will happen when you report a TIIA to TU Hotspots?

Once your entry is approved by the admin you will get a notification. You can see your entry history through “My previous reports” on the log in account. This data will soon be available on the TU Hotspots map or Media dash board depending on your entry.

What is TU Hotspots Map?

TU HotSpots Map is a user-friendly interactive map of Sri Lanka, marked by GIS-based spots (HotSpots) of instances of TIIA, fed by the users via the category of TU HotSpots. The TU HotSpots “heat map” enables the stakeholders in tobacco control to identify geographical locations of ‘hot spots’, rate of occurrence, trends and other details of TIIA. This will help them to take timely action, including advocating for better policies or to drive community empowerment projects in tobacco control. You can do your own analysis of this data based on your study purpose and obtain the relevant results.

What is Media dash board?

The TU Media Dashboard is a database that features the details of TIIA in different media with images if applicable, fed by the users via the category of TU Media.

Are you interested in studying tobacco industry interference in Sri Lanka?

Please visit our official information portal www.tobaccounmasked.lk

What are the new improvements of TU Hotspots?

Now you can report alcohol, cannabis and other drugs related interference via TU Hotspots following the same method as per tobacco. It is a replication to fulfill the demand of the stakeholders.

Do you have more questions?

Please contact us:
Telephone: +94 769233435
E mail: admin@cct.lk/ tobaccounmasked@gmail.com
Address: Centre for Combating Tobacco (CCT), Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo