Eliminating the illicit trade in tobacco would generate an annual tax windfall of US$ 31 billion for governments, improve public health, help cut crime and curb an important revenue source for the tobacco industry. On the World No Tobacco Day on 31 May, WHO calls Member States to sign the “Protocol to Eliminate the Illicit […]
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This artistic ad from Thailand will make you think…and gasp
The opening of this video is intriguing – thick black ink dropping into water, then a paintbrush slowly making a bold black stroke across canvas. The paintbrush has been dipped in what looks like a high quality art paint jar…but it is no ordinary ink. As the ad states, it is the life’s work of a man who spent 50 […]
Bloomberg Philanthropies Honors Tobacco Control Organizations
by Stan Shatenstein Bloomberg Philanthropies hosted the third Bloomberg Philanthropies Awards for Global Tobacco Control as part of the 16th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Abu Dhabi last week. The Awards were created to recognise governments and non-governmental organizations demonstrating excellent progress or achievement in the implementation of MPOWER measures in low-and middle-income […]
Tobacco industry confronted with child labour
By Laura Graen, www.forchangemakers.com In late 2014, the tobacco industry was confronted with the revelation of child labour on US tobacco farms, detailed in a well-researched 139 page report published by Human Rights Watch (HRW). The USA is not alone; most major tobacco producing countries use child labour in tobacco growing. In other words, […]
American Red Cross: tobacco funding risks global brand
The American Red Cross is under increasing pressure to refuse tobacco industry donations, to bring it into line with guidelines of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and most of the 189 national affiliates. Accepting tobacco funding is in clear breach of the first of the seven Fundamental Principles of the […]
Obituaries: Vale tobacco control leaders Nigel Gray and Anthony (Tony) Hedley
The international tobacco control community lost two of its leading figures in late 2014: Dr Nigel Gray (Australia) and Professor Tony Hedley (UK/Hong Kong). Both made an enormous contribution to public health through a combination of robust scientific evidence and persuasive advocacy. Nigel Gray, 12 September 1928-20 December 2014 A decade after the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) […]
UK: Tobacco industry goal is to delay plain packaging
Plain packaging laws could be delayed if not introduced before the general election. The Guardian reports: The government is under fire from politicians on all sides amid fears that legislation forcing tobacco companies to sell cigarettes in plain packs will not be introduced before the general election. MPs from all three main parties, including the […]
China set to ban smoking in public places
In late November 2014, China began the process of introducing laws to enforce smokefree public places and ban tobacco advertising. Unsurprisingly, the state-owned tobacco industry has already started to push back against these essential reforms: “We must note that smoking has hundreds of years of history and objectively a market demand for cigarettes still exists,” […]
New Zealand: Dirty Politics raises conflict of interest concerns
Nathan Cowie, MPH. Cowie Research and Communications Disclosure: The author has previously undertaken paid employment for Centre for Tobacco Control Research, University of Auckland, and Action on Smoking and Health New Zealand. Investigative journalist Nicky Hager released a book in August 2014 on the seamier side of New Zealand politics. Dirty Politics: How attack politics […]
The Netherlands: Dutch government sued over WHO FCTC violations
This post was originally published by The Youth Smoking Prevention Foundation. It is republished here with full permission. The Youth Smoking Prevention Foundation is taking the Kingdom of the Netherlands to court to end the structural and excessive influence exerted by the tobacco lobby on government anti-smoking policies. The Foundation is calling on the Dutch […]