New Zealand to have world’s first smoke-free military by 2020

New Zealand has kicked off World No Tobacco Day by announcing a plan for its defence force to become the world’s first smoke-free military by 2020. Initiatives to achieve the goal include banning the sale of cigarettes on camps and bases and making NZ defence force housing smokefree. It will also evolve camps and bases into smokefree […]

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Fashion and smoking: Celebrities “rebel” at the MET Gala

Fashion and the tobacco industry have a long and intertwined history. Dated images of fashion models smoking while looking impossibly glamorous seem clichéd and old fashioned. Now, smoking is more a symbol of addiction, death, and corporate manipulation – no longer is smoking shorthand for rebellion, coolness and aspiration. But, that didn’t stop celebrities attending […]

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France: breaking new ground in tobacco control

The start of 2017 has seen tobacco control in France boosted with a series of ground-breaking tobacco control measures, as detailed in a recent article by Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada. After a phase-in period, cigarette plain packaging is fully in force as of 1 January 2017. As in other countries that have already introduced plain […]

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Is Philip Morris’ claim it wants to phase out conventional cigarettes credible?

In recent months, Philip Morris International has been claiming it wants to lead the push to a smoke free world and  wants to work with governments towards the phase out of conventional cigarettes. The claims have been met with scepticism, but do they stand up to scrutiny? At an investor day held in late September 2016, […]

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Both Sides of the Argument? JTI-MacDonald’s Anti-Plain Packaging Spin in Canada

  Julia Smith Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University JTI-MacDonald recently launched a multimedia campaign, Both Sides of the Argument, to sway public opinion against proposed plain packaging legislation in Canada. The campaign includes advertisements on popular radio stations, a website, posters in restaurant and bar bathrooms, advertisements in national newspapers and sponsored posts […]

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Big Tobacco’s dirty tricks in opposing plain packaging

Jenny Hatchard, University of Bath Tobacco companies want to sell you cigarettes – today, tomorrow and for the foreseeable future. Whether you’re at the tobacco counter or out with friends, glitzy cigarette packaging is a really important part of their sales pitch. Tobacco companies are aware of this. It’s why they are so opposed to […]

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Southeast Asia: Indonesia lags in curbing tobacco industry interference in policy making

Indonesia has once again emerged as a clear laggard in curbing tobacco industry interference in policy-making, according to a report ranking countries in the Southeast Asia region based on their level of implementation of Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). It is the third annual report on tobacco industry interference […]

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The world of predatory publishing: what is it, and what might it mean for tobacco control?

  Raymond Boyle ClearWay Minnesota If your email inbox is anything like mine, you receive a near constant stream of requests to send a manuscript to the next new journal. Most researchers are familiar with this type of academic spam: the journal name might sound familiar, but these requests usually appear as a generic template. […]

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