Confronting the tobacco industry

Yesterday’s opening plenary at the WCTOH 2012 was simply dynamite – one of the best sessions I have attended. (The only downer being that that the ballroom isn’t big enough to accommodate all conference attendees.) Health ministers from Turkey, Uruguay, Australia and Norway took part in an exciting and inspiring panel discussion on how they […]

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We’ve come a long way bullies

During her keynote address to the 15th World Conference on Tobacco Or Health, WHO head Margaret Chan put her own spin on the classic Virginia slims campaign, “you’ve come a long way, baby” – reminding the tobacco industry that “we’ve come a long way, bullies” since the iconic ad campaign to hook women on cigarettes. […]

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Congratulations Australia on plain packaging

Ruth Malone, Editor Congratulations to our colleagues in Australia who have just passed world class, groundbreaking legislation mandating plain packaging for cigarettes! More details will follow later in the journal’s News Analysis section, but this really is taking aim at one of the industry’s major marketing venues, the one smokers hold in their hand and […]

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British American Tobacco’s United Dreams of Europe

by Stan Shatenstein At the end of June, the Foundation for Future Studies (Stiftung für Zukunftsfragen) launched the online project, ‘United Dreams of Europe’ (www.uniteddreamsofeurope.eu), the goal of which was allegedly to offer “an insight into the European study of the same name to be published in autumn 2011. For this project more than 15,000 Europeans were […]

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November 16 – World COPD Day

Policymakers to prevent Europe from suffocating Estimated by the World Health Organisation to rise to the third leading cause of death by 2020, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is virtually unknown amongst not only the general public but also amongst many healthcare professionals in primary care. COPD cannot be cured,  which makes prevention, a timely […]

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A proposal of effective complementary measures to WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control [FCTC]

Luka Solmajer, a tobacco control advocate and pharmacist from Slovenia shares his views on why the economic aspects of tobacco control need urgent action. ________________________ In the year 2010 over 5,000,000 people died because they were addicted to tobacco products. They lost on average 9 years of life and several more years of good health […]

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