Hot on the heels of the tobacco industry’s failed legal challenge to the UK’s tobacco plain packaging laws in May 2016, Philip Morris suffered a new defeat in July, this time in its long-running case against Uruguay’s health warning labels. The McCabe Centre for Law and Cancer has prepared a paper outlining key aspects of the judgement which are […]
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Australia: progress on Tasmania’s tobacco free generation legislation
Kathryn Barnsley, University of Tasmania In 2012 and 2014 we reported that the Australian state of Tasmania was developing mechanisms for implementing the tobacco free generation (TFG). Tasmania has been paradoxically both a leader in legislative reform and a laggard in allocating resources to tobacco control. The Public Health Amendment (Tobaccofree Generation) Bill 2014 was […]
UK plain packs court decision: interests at stake ‘collide in the most irreconcilable of ways’
The decision on 19 May 2016 by the High Court of Justice of England and Wales to dismiss the legal challenges brought by the four multinational tobacco companies against the UK’s tobacco plain packaging legislation was a major blow to the industry. The 386 page ruling addresses a wide range of legal claims and evidence; […]
Industry-funded International Tax and Investment Center responds to criticism by attempting to muddy the waters
Karen A Evans-Reeves, Anna B Gilmore and Andy Rowell Tobacco Control Research Group, University of Bath, The tobacco industry is under attack. In just two weeks, in May 2016, its tactic of challenging any law that threatens its profits, took a big hit. The arbitration panel, that tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI) had hoped […]
Obituary: Yul Francisco Dorado, a visionary tobacco control leader in Latin America
Latin America, and the global tobacco control community, lost a champion of public health on 1 May 2016. Yul Francisco Dorado was born in Popayán, in southwest Colombia, where he completed his studies in Law and Political Science. At a young age he became interested in the right to health and environment. He became a […]
World No Tobacco Day 2016: Get Ready for Plain Packaging
This year for World No Tobacco Day, the World Health Organization is urging governments to build on advertising and promotion bans by introducing plain packaging of tobacco products. The measure is the next logical step in stripping away any hint of glamour associated with smoking. It is also an important way of preventing packaging creating misleading suggestions of […]
Tobacco Control Podcast
In the latest TC podcast Becky Freeman talks to Dr Robert McMillen about his paper in Tobacco Control entitled “Public support for raising the age of sale for tobacco to 21 in the United States”. They discuss where the public support is the most strong and some surprising findings for people ages 18-24. Other podcast […]
Germany: tobacco graphic health warnings to finally turn the tide?
In a welcome step forward from the weak text-only ‘smoking can be deadly’ and similar warnings that have thus far graced cigarette packs, Germany is set to introduce graphic health warnings. Despite tentative progress in recent years, Germany has historically been one of Europe’s poster children for tobacco control legislative failure. That reputation may begin […]
Liability: untapped potential in the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
Chris Bostic, Richard Daynard and Tamar Lawrence-Samuel The history of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is filled with one unprecedented victory after another (see page 21). The next milestone for the treaty can—and should— tap the potential of Article 19 to hold the industry liable. Though the implementation of measures in line with Articles […]
New Zealand study: Dissuasive cigarette sticks – the next step in standardised (‘plain’) packaging?
A study published by Tobacco Control in December 2015 by a team of New Zealand and Australian researchers explored extending the concept of plain packaging one step further – to the cigarette stick itself. New Zealand is moving towards introducing plain packaging; incorporating dissuasive cigarette sticks would put it at the forefront of innovative tobacco […]