Dr Bjartveit was a Senior Officer in the Norwegian Mass Radiography Service (later the National Health Screening Service) from 1959 to 1963 and held the position of Director there from 1963 until his retirement in 1997. He was a pioneer in cardiovascular epidemiology, trials and screening and instrumental in the Cardiovascular Disease Study in Norwegian Counties. This study applied the wartime mass screening techniques used for TB and chest diseases to identify people at risk for heart disease and provided preventive advice and follow-up.
Dr Bjartveit also served as Director of the Norwegian Health Association from 1997 to 2001, in which role he contributed to the understanding the pathogenesis and prevention of tuberculosis.
An ardent advocate of tobacco control, Dr Bjartveit served on the committee that worked towards passage of Norway’s Tobacco Act in 1973, and was an expert advisor to the World Health Organization from the 1970s. He was also President of the Governing Council of the International Non-Governmental Coalition Against Tobacco (INGCAT).
In 2005, Dr Bjartveit and his colleague Aage Tverdal published a study of the health risks of smoking 1 to 4 cigarettes a day that received widespread publicity. The study results showed that, in both sexes, smoking 1–4 cigarettes per day was associated with a significantly higher risk of dying from ischaemic heart disease and from all causes, and from lung cancer in women. It urged policy makers and health educators to emphasise more strongly that light smokers also endanger their health.
Another study by the two researchers, published in October 2010 in Tobacco Control, examined whether pipe smoking was any safer than cigarette smoking. Their results showed it was not.
Active in a variety of Union committees over many years, Dr Bjartveit served as President of The Union in 1999 and 2000, presiding over the World Conferences in Madrid and Florence. According to Dr Nils E Billo, Executive Director, he was also instrumental in obtaining support from the Norwegian government that provided funds for Union programmes in tuberculosis, tobacco control and lung health.
Prof Asma El Sony of Sudan, also a former Union president, said she “admired his love for sports and politics” as well as his important contributions to the fights against tobacco and tuberculosis.
Kjell Bjartveit was born in Norway on 14 August 1927. He graduated from the University of Oslo as an MD in 1951, then specialised in lung diseases, receiving a Diploma in Public Health from the University of Toronto in 1962 and a DMedSc degree at the University of Oslo in 1984. He was married to the Norwegian physician and politician Eleonore Bjartveit, who predeceased him.
Studies cited:
K Bjartveit, A Tverdal. Health consequences of smoking 1-4 cigarettes per day. Tob Control 2005;14:315–320.