Kathryn Barnsley An innovative legislative reform in Tasmania, Australia has been defeated, after what appears to be tobacco industry interference via third parties, with support from vaping lobby groups. A 2018 bill to gradually phase in and raise the minimum legal sales age of e-cigarettes and tobacco to 21 years (T21) now law in […]
Category: Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
Planet earth: another victim of the tobacco epidemic
By Dr Adriana Blanco Marquizo, Head of the Secretariat of the WHO FCTC We live in an interconnected world, a fact that has never been as clear as it is now, during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are very few issues that can be considered simply ‘health problems’, as nearly every aspect of life is connected […]
Spain: Civil Rights and Public Health Organizations Press Government for a Tobacco Endgame by 2030
Laurent Huber, Ubaldo Cuadrado García de Arboleya, Raquel Fernández Megina and Leonardo Visconti More than twenty civil rights associations and public health organizations in Spain have backed a Declaration asking the Spanish Government for a Tobacco Endgame by 2030. The goal is ambitious: to decrease smoking prevalence in Spain to under 5% by 2030. The […]
Philip Morris and the Government of Canada collaborate on COVID-19 vaccine development
Joanna Cohen and Simon Chapman Does the control of one pandemic justify the promotion of another? The news of a new COVID-19 vaccine collaboration between Philip Morris International and the Government of Canada has set off alarm bells in the tobacco control community. The vaccine developer at the middle of the controversy—Quebec-based Medicago Inc.—is owned […]
GLOBAL TOBACCO INDUSTRY INTERFERENCE INDEX HIGHLIGHTS CSR AND LACK OF TRANSPARENCY
Mary Assunta Many governments found themselves between a rock and a hard place during the COVID-19 pandemic when offered donations of goods and funds by the tobacco industry. However, opening the door to the tobacco industry’s charity also paves the way to a relationship that the industry will exploit to further its business. A collaborative […]
Illicit Tobacco Trade not exacerbated by tobacco tax increases in low & middle income countries, research shows
Priscilla Tiigah and Erika Dayle Siu The health and economic consequences of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are well documented. The question of how best to control and prevent NCDs is urgent in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs), where the burden is disproportionately rising compared to high income countries. Tobacco, the only common risk factor for the four […]
The urgent need for a human rights approach to improving smoking cessation treatment
Kelsey Romeo-Stuppy with Carolyn Dresler, Chris Bostic, Cheryl Healton, Laurent Huber, Harry Lando, and Martin Raw When thinking of human rights crises, people often think of violence – child soldiers, genital mutilation, concentration camps – rather than health epidemics. However, tobacco corporations are guilty of one of the greatest human rights abuses in history. Tobacco […]
Tobacco industry lobbies Bangladesh Government Agency to champion its business during COVID-19 pandemic
ABM Zubair Bangladesh has seen an unprecedented level of tobacco industry interference during the COVID-19 crisis. The tobacco industry in Bangladesh, dominated by two transnational tobacco companies, British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB) and Japan Tobacco International (JTI), has exploited the ongoing pandemic to protect its cigarette business. While publicly building their image by making donations […]
Tobacco Control and Human Rights Before, During, and After COVID-19
Neil Sircar and Stella Aguinaga Bialous The global COVID-19 pandemic has brought about significant disruption and trauma, and with it a rise in threats to human rights. UN Secretary-General Guterres remarked on April 23rd, 2020 that the pandemic was “fast becoming a human rights crisis” as nations grapple with detecting, preventing, and responding to overlapping […]
Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control & the COVID19 Pandemic
Stella Aguinaga Bialous & Becky Freeman Article 5.3 implementation guidelines of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) remind all parties to protect public health against the “commercial or other vested interests” of the tobacco industry. The guidelines recognize a “fundamental and irreconcilable” conflict of interest between tobacco industry ambitions and public health policy […]