Mary Assunta, Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance The tobacco industry lost the health argument 50 years ago, and in the past decade the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) developed the antidote to reverse the smoking epidemic. However the tobacco industry is stepping up direct attacks, particularly at WHO. Recently the industry took […]
Category: Legislation and Policy
Big tobacco, child labour and the International Labour Organization
“The aim is to inhibit incorporation of ILO into WHO Anti-Smoking Program” So states a Philip Morris memo from December 1988, available through the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents (see page 8). Nearly 30 years on, the tobacco industry appears to be doing very well at nurturing its alliance with the International Labour Organization […]
Lithuania: FCTC breaches undermine tobacco control progress
Vaida Liutkutė Health research institute Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (Note: this is an edited version of an article published in the January 2016 edition of News Analysis). The FCTC took effect in Lithuania on 16 March 2005, making it among the earliest countries to be subject to its legal obligations. Despite this, violations of […]
Philip Morris agreement with Spanish police: undermining the FCTC?
On 29 October, Philip Morris Spain signed an agreement with the Spanish police to fund equipment including underwater cameras, night vision systems, and scanners for verifying authentication and tracking of tobacco products. The agreement also includes support during inspections and seizures of counterfeit products to assess possible illegal activities regarding the entire production and distribution […]
How to dramatically reduce smoking without banning tobacco sales
Micah Berman, Ohio State University Last November, the Board of Health for Westminster, a town in central Massachusetts, proposed prohibiting all tobacco sales – even e-cigarettes – in the town. Westminster’s three-person Board of Health said that the proposal was meant to protect the next generation from tobacco and nicotine products. The board expressed frustration […]
Big tobacco, Interpol & Codentify: potential problems with industry product tracking systems
In 2013, Tobacco Control published an article which examined Codentify, an industry tracking and tracing standard (click here for open access full text). It traces events from 2011, when Interpol accepted a substantial donation from Philip Morris International. Shortly afterwards, in 2012, Interpol announced the creation of the Interpol Global Register (IGR) to help ensure authenticity […]
Jamaica: United Way charity under pressure over tobacco industry links
Tobacco industry corporate philanthropy and social responsibility has been under the international spotlight recently with the revelation that the American Red Cross continues to accept tobacco industry donations, despite concerns of the International Red Cross that US Red Cross risks damaging the global reputation of the network. Accepting tobacco industry donations is particularly problematic for charitable […]
Reuters reports U.S. to roll back ‘lost pleasure’ approach on health rules
(Reuters) – The U.S. government is preparing to roll back a widely criticized approach to public health, in which the “lost pleasure” people might suffer if they quit smoking or chose to eat healthier foods was used to reduce the projected benefits of new regulations, government officials told Reuters. Kenneth Warner, a University of Michigan […]
The European Tobacco Products Directive and the Tobacco Industry
Listen to this BMJ talk medicine TC podcast discussion with Silvy Peeters, University of Bath, about her paper: The Revision of the 2014 European Tobacco Products Directive: An Analysis of the Tobacco Industry’s Attempts to ‘break the health silo’ The full paper is also freely available to all as an open access publication. https://soundcloud.com/bmjpodcasts/the-2014-european-tobacco-products-directive-and-the-industrys-attempts-to-break-the-health-silo?in=bmjpodcasts/sets/tc-podcast […]
Should stores selling tobacco be allowed to provide publicly funded health services?
Dr Andrew Furber Follow Dr Furber on Twitter at @FurberA Imagine a patient with a health problem accessing a publicly-funded health service where the substance causing the problem was on sale within the same premises. You would probably think this was completely unethical. But this is exactly what happens in hundreds of supermarkets in […]