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 […]
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Kerala: India’s first tobacco ad-free state
Rema Sundar, Tobacco Free Kerala Kerala has become the first state in India to become tobacco advertisement free. This major milestone for public health in the country represents strong government commitment, a favourable policy framework, accountability, and engagement by various departments to achieve robust enforcement. The first step was successfully abolishing tobacco advertisements at the points-of-sale […]
Can prohibition work? The case of India’s smokeless tobacco ban
Pankaj Chaturvedi, Sanjay Seth, Prakash C Gupta, Ashima Sarin Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai ‘Bans don’t work’ is a common response to measures to restrict or outlaw tobacco supply. Libertarians decry such measures as excessive ‘nanny state’ intervention; others point to the USA experience of alcohol prohibition in the 1930s, often held up as a failed […]
Last Dance
Powerful anti-tobacco ad from Cancer Council Tasmania. A systematic review of the economic evaluations of tobacco control mass media campaigns show such campaigns offer good value for money. Please feel welcome to share ads you think are helping smokers quit. […]
Point of Sale Display: A Call to Action on Prohibition of Tobacco Products in Nepal
By Amrit Banstola and Ashik Banstola In Nepal, tobacco products are smoked, inhaled, chewed, and sucked in many different forms. All forms of these tobacco products seriously damage health. In a situation where the country is undergoing a shift in burden from infectious diseases to chronic diseases, Non-Communicable Diseases [NCDs] caused by tobacco are increasingly […]
World: US Chamber of Commerce shills for Big Tobacco
In 2009, when tobacco plain packaging legislation was first being considered in Australia, the president of the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington made a submission to the country’s preventative health taskforce, which was appointed by the Australian Government to provide recommendations about national tobacco control measures. At the time, the move by the US […]
Should a hunger charity accept support from a tobacco company?
article by Simon Chapman, University of Sydney I recently noticed a tweet from @CareersatBAT about how British American Tobacco South Africa had packed 200,000 meals of donated food for the Million Meal Challenge being run by Stop Hunger Now Southern Africa. BAT South Africa is stamping out hunger by packing 200k meals as part of […]
Health ministers from around the world agree plain tobacco packaging priority
In excellent news for public health and bad news for big tobacco, Yahoo! news reports: Ministers from 10 countries gathered in Paris Monday to launch a common drive to introduce plain cigarette packaging with the aim of stubbing out high smoking rates among young people. Representatives from nations as far afield as New Zealand, Australia, […]
World Head & Neck Cancer Day, 27 July: A call for effective tobacco & areca nut control
Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, Professor and Head and Neck Surgeon at Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, India. Head and cancers are a major cause of death and disability globally, and the most common cancer in low-income countries. To draw the world’s attention to effective care and control of head and neck cancers, the International Federation of Head […]
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 […]