Deborah Sy In the ongoing battle against plastic pollution to protect the marine environment, a decision at COP10 on the implementation of Article 18 (Protection of the Environment) serves as a beacon of hope. Every year, some 4.5 trillion littered plastic cigarette butts contribute to the consistent ranking for the top plastic items in debris […]
Category: Legislation and Policy
“Thank you for smoking”: New Aotearoa/New Zealand government ditches history-making smoke-free plan to fund tax cuts
Ruth Canty and Marita Hefler New Zealand has announced it will repeal the country’s world-leading smokefree laws. Faced with a choice between leading a turning point in the global tobacco epidemic or turning back the clock, New Zealand’s new incoming coalition government chose the latter. The new coalition government is made up of right-wing parties, […]
Brookline introduces Tobacco-Free Generation law
Jon Berrick, Chris Bostic, Michael Chou, Richard Daynard, Lissy Friedman, Mark Gottlieb, Anthony Ishak, Tamu Green, Kate Silbaugh & D J Wilson Why Brookline? Brookline, Massachusetts is a relatively affluent and well-educated town within the greater Boston metropolitan area. It has repeatedly been at the forefront of anti-tobacco legislation, having been a municipal member of […]
New Zealand: Ground-breaking action plan may help country achieve its Smokefree 2025 goal
Richard Edwards, Janet Hoek and Andrew Waa On December 9 2021, Associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall launched the New Zealand (NZ) Government’s action plan to achieve its Smokefree 2025 goal. The Action Plan responded to consultation on a discussion document published in April 2021 that outlined draft proposals. The NZ government committed to a […]
Tobacco control in Portugal: stagnating with partial indoor smoking bans
Teresa Leão and Henrique Barros In Portugal, one person dies every hour due to a smoking-related disease. In 2019, 13,559 individuals died from a smoking-related illness (11.7% of total deaths for the year), with smoking attributed as the top cause of age-standardized healthy life years lost. In addition, 15% of smoking-related deaths are caused by […]
Global Youth Tobacco Survey-4: A Glimmer of hope for India
Ravi Mehrotra and Kavita Yadav The fourth round of the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS-4) was conducted in 2019 by the International Institute for Population Sciences under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India. These data provide a useful cross-sectional picture of youth tobacco use, and repeat surveys at regular intervals provide useful […]
Tobacco Free Nicotine (TFN): A New Public Health Challenge
Grace Kong & Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin Constant innovations in the design, formulation, and marketing of tobacco products have resulted in novel products with high appeal among youth. In the USA, this has raised regulatory challenges for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). For instance, the introduction of pod-based e-cigarette devices like JUUL led to huge increases […]
Menthol: Tobacco Companies are exploiting loopholes in the UK’s characterising flavours ban
Sarah Dance and Karen Evans-Reeves A ban on characterising flavours in tobacco products (including menthol), as part of the European Union’s revised Tobacco Products Directive (or TPD2), was introduced in the UK in May 2020. Flavourings, particularly menthol, appeal to young people and are erroneously perceived as less harmful. Menthol cigarettes represent 10% of the […]
As we reflect on COVID-19’s toll, the US must also act on the tobacco pandemic
John Maa and Jeff Wigand On February 22, 2021, the United States paused to honor the tragic milestone of 500,000 COVID-19 deaths, just one year and 16 days after the first fatality was recorded in California. The peak of 5,427 new US deaths reported on Feb 12, 2021 exceeded the 4,414 Allied deaths at Normandy […]
Perils of the tipping point of Big Tobacco 2.0 taking over the legal cannabis industry
Andy SL Tan and Shaleen Title Big Tobacco is increasingly poised to become a significant player in the new legal cannabis industry and potentially crowd out smaller businesses. In January 2016, Philip Morris International invested $20 million in Israel-based Syqe Medical that developed a medical cannabis inhaler. In June 2018, Britain’s Imperial Brands invested through […]