Mike Daube The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World was announced four months ago, with a September 12th statement from the Philip Morris International company that “PMI currently expects to support the Foundation by contributing approximately USD 80 million per year, depending on the Foundation’s requirements and operations, over the next 12 years, beginning in […]
Category: Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
Philip Morris Smoke Free Foundation: questions about independence and transparency, while top universities distance themselves
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Uruguay: five key messages from Philip Morris’ failed challenge to packaging laws
Hot on the heels of the tobacco industry’s failed legal challenge to the UK’s tobacco plain packaging laws in May 2016, Philip Morris suffered a new defeat in July, this time in its long-running case against Uruguay’s health warning labels. The McCabe Centre for Law and Cancer has prepared a paper outlining key aspects of the judgement which are […]
UK plain packs court decision: interests at stake ‘collide in the most irreconcilable of ways’
The decision on 19 May 2016 by the High Court of Justice of England and Wales to dismiss the legal challenges brought by the four multinational tobacco companies against the UK’s tobacco plain packaging legislation was a major blow to the industry. The 386 page ruling addresses a wide range of legal claims and evidence; […]