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 […]
Category: Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
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 […]
Jamaica: United Way charity under pressure over tobacco industry links
Tobacco industry corporate philanthropy and social responsibility has been under the international spotlight recently with the revelation that the American Red Cross continues to accept tobacco industry donations, despite concerns of the International Red Cross that US Red Cross risks damaging the global reputation of the network. Accepting tobacco industry donations is particularly problematic for charitable […]
Urgent action to amend Austria’s tobacco control laws
Prof. Manfred Neuberger writes: Since 2007 Austria has received the poorest score on the Tobacco Control Scale. While smoking prevalence and tobacco consumption decreased on average in the European Union, an opposite trend has occurred in Austria. Child smoking has increased dramatically since the 1990s. Cigarettes are available around the clock in thousands of vending […]
World Conference on Tobacco or Health: keeping the focus on the tobacco industry
Anna Nicholson, Menzies School of Health Research Follow Anna on Twitter @annaknicholson The 16th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH) was held in Abu Dhabi from March 17-21 2015, the first time it has been held in the Middle East. While this did not come without challenges (approximately 60 delegates, the majority from […]
India: Government consultation to strengthen National Tobacco Control Law
Amit Yadav & Monika Arora, Public Health Foundation of India Two months after announcing larger and stronger pictorial health warnings on all tobacco products, and 10 years after ratifying the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Government of India is proposing to amend and strengthen […]
Tobacco industry confronted with child labour
By Laura Graen, www.forchangemakers.com In late 2014, the tobacco industry was confronted with the revelation of child labour on US tobacco farms, detailed in a well-researched 139 page report published by Human Rights Watch (HRW). The USA is not alone; most major tobacco producing countries use child labour in tobacco growing. In other words, […]
WHO report on regulation of e-cigarettes and similar products
The following content is courtesy of the WHO. The report on “Electronic nicotine delivery systems” (ENDS), of which electronic cigarettes are the most common prototype, is on the agenda of the 6th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), being held 13-18 October 2014, in Moscow. E-cigarettes […]
Postcard from Myanmar: tea houses and tobacco promotion
Guest post by Peter Worland The ubiquitous Myanmar tea house. You can hear the buzz of Burmese conversation emanating from such meeting places day and night. Old people on their daily catch up with neighbours meet here. Young people hang out and compare their new mobile phones here. New mums show off their beautiful […]
#DortmundKills campaign: the legal, moral and ethical case against Inter-tabac Asia
As reported in News Analysis in the January edition of Tobacco Control, the Dortmund city-owned company Westfalenhallen Dortmund GmbH (Germany) is organising Inter-tabac Asia, a trade fair for the tobacco industry, to be held on the Indonesian island of Bali on 27 & 28 February. An international campaign against the event has attracted support from around the world, and […]