Seventeen universities in Canada and the USA have issued a joint statement that they will not accept funding from, or pursue work with, the Philip Morris International (PMI)-funded ‘Foundation for a Smoke Free World’. The statement echoes concerns previously raised by the World Health Organization and other public health groups and leaders, stating: “If Philip […]
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Austria’s new government: a victory for the tobacco industry and public health disaster?
Manfred Neuberger In Austria the conservative Austrian People’s Party (Oesterreiche Volkpartei, OeVP) won the 2017 elections, and negotiated with the third-largest party, the right-wing nationalist Freedom Party of Austria (Freiheitliche Partei Oesterreichs, FPOe) to form a new government. In its election campaign, the FPOe had promised to attack the tobacco law, which had been […]
ILO must shake off tobacco industry yoke
Mary Assunta and Ulysses Dorotheo Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) On 1 November the International Labour Organization (ILO)’s Governing Body will make a decision about continuing or ending its relationship with the tobacco industry. However, the reference document (GB.331/POL/5) prepared by the ILO’s secretariat, the International Labour Office (the Office), to assist the […]
Why Tobacco Control still won’t publish tobacco industry funded work, even if the funding is laundered through PMI’s new ‘independent’ foundation
Authors: The Tobacco Control Senior Editorial Team (listed in alphabetical order): Joaquin Barnoya, Joanna Cohen, Coral Gartner, Lisa Henriksen, Sarah Hill, Ruth E. Malone, Richard O’Connor Tobacco Control has a normative focus: we strive to publish the best research that informs and advances public health and policy. In this spirit – and because of a […]
Commentary on the launch of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World
Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva September 2017 saw the launch of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, which describes itself as “an independent, non-profit organization created to accelerate global efforts to reduce health impacts and deaths from smoking, with the goal of ultimately eliminating smoking worldwide”. The creation of such an organization would usually […]
A “Frank Statement” for the 21st Century?
Ruth E. Malone, Simon Chapman, Prakash C. Gupta, Rima Nakkash, Tih Ntiabang, Eduardo Bianco, Yussuf Saloojee, Prakit Vathesatogkit, Laurent Huber, Chris Bostic, Pascal Diethelm, Cynthia Callard, Neil Collishaw, Anna B. Gilmore The surprise announcement by the former head of the World Health Organization’s Tobacco Free Initiative, Derek Yach, that he would head a newly-established organization […]
Fake news: is smoking really increasing in Australia?
Author: Simon Chapman AO This blog post originally appeared on Doctor Portal and is published here with permission. ON 14 August, 2017, The Australian newspaper ran a story guaranteed to go viral. The headline screamed: “More smokers lighting up, despite the costs”. The journalist, Adam Creighton, who has, grotesquely, written about tobacco control being like […]
A missed opportunity: The US Helsinki Commission hearing on the illicit tobacco trade in the OSCE region
Benoît Gomis, Kelley Lee, Ross MacKenzie benoitg@sfu.ca On 19 July 2017, the US Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) – also known as the ‘Helsinki Commission’ – held a hearing on the illicit tobacco trade in the Organization for Security Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) region. The Helsinki Commission, an independent US government […]
India: steep decline in tobacco consumption in India reported in second Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS 2017)
Authors: Chaturvedi Pankaj , Sarin Ashima, Seth Sanjay, Gupta PC On 8th June 2017, results from the second Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS 2) of India were released. GATS is a global standard for systematically monitoring adult tobacco use and tracking key tobacco control indicators. India is the world’s largest democracy, and the second largest […]
World No Tobacco Day 2017: how different countries are celebrating
This page brings together coverage from around the world of World No Tobacco Day. It will be updated regularly with tweets, photos and links to news coverage. The theme of World No Tobacco Day 2017 is Tobacco – a threat to development. Tobacco threatens development on many fronts – health, poverty, women & children, and […]