Alexander Barker We know that there are tobacco references in music and in the image portrayed by musicians, often associated with themes of rebellion. Smoking content in the media is a causal factor in experimentation and uptake by young people, likely due to social learning. Furthermore, the tobacco industry has previously attempted to target ‘hip’ […]
Category: Smoke-free public spaces
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 […]
Smoke-Free Stadia: How far have we come?
Matthew Philpott As I write this blog today, it almost three months since I watched the relentless Giorgio Chiellini lift the Henri Delaunay trophy above his head after Italy beat England in a penalty shootout at Wembley to win EURO 2020. Whilst the final saw the curtain drawn on a month-long competition of 51 football […]
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 […]
Spain: COVID-19 prompts smoking regulation in streets and terraces
Esteve Fernández, Cristina Martínez Spain has been heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. From the first diagnosed case on January 31 this year to August 13, there were 337,334 cases, 129,009 hospitalizations and 28,605 deaths. After a growing number of daily cases of coronavirus across the country in recent weeks, Spain is going to regulate […]
The Philippines: Pioneering the Tobacco Endgame
Kathleen de Leon and Jacky T Sarita In global tobacco control, the Philippines is known as a particularly challenging environment due to long-standing tobacco industry influence. Over 15 years ago, it was termed the “strongest tobacco lobby in Asia”. The 2019 Southeast Asia Tobacco Industry Interference Index ranked the Philippines fifth among nine nations […]
Pakistan: time for stronger enforcement on tobacco control
Musaddique Hussain, Abdul Majeed, Imran Imran, Muhammad Fawad Rasool, Ikhlaq Hussain, Qasim Barkat, Ximei Wu Tobacco use continues to grow in Pakistan due to lack of awareness about its dangers, low prices, aggressive tobacco industry marketing efforts and steady population growth. According to Dr. Abid Saeed Nima, WHO’s acting chief in Pakistan, new estimates show […]
The 2020 Tokyo Olympic & Paralympic Games: time for Japan to showcase smokefree hospitality
Authors: Shuhei Nomura and Haruka Sakamoto with Yusuke Tsugawa, Naoko Iwanaga, Seiichiro Kuchiki, Ichiro Kawachi, Kenji Shibuya Despite its outstanding health record in other areas, Japan is a global laggard in tobacco control, and does not meet standards set by the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), particularly for smoke-free public spaces. The […]
Austrian citizens: now is the time to support smoke free areas
Austrian citizens have a chance this week to show their support for their right to smoke free public spaces with a referendum on laws to protect non-smokers from tobacco smoke exposure. Voting is open until 8 October. Voting and information about the process can be found here: https://dontsmoke.at/. Austria has long been known as the ashtray […]
Austria: government chooses tobacco industry interests over citizens’ health
German version (click here) Austria achieved a dismal milestone in March 2018, when its government overturned modest (and long overdue) legislation for smoke free hospitality venues. The new laws had been due to come into force in May 2018. Among high income countries, Austria already stood as a grim example of woefully inadequate tobacco control. […]