Questions for the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World

  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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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Industry-funded International Tax and Investment Center responds to criticism by attempting to muddy the waters

Karen A Evans-Reeves, Anna B Gilmore and Andy Rowell Tobacco Control Research Group, University of Bath, The tobacco industry is under attack. In just two weeks, in May 2016, its tactic of challenging any law that threatens its profits, took a big hit. The arbitration panel, that tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI) had hoped […]

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World No Tobacco Day 2016: Get Ready for Plain Packaging

This year for World No Tobacco Day, the World Health Organization is urging governments to build on advertising and promotion bans by introducing plain packaging of tobacco products. The measure is the next logical step in stripping away any hint of glamour associated with smoking. It is also an important way of preventing packaging creating misleading suggestions of […]

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Tobacco industry attacks WHO, but only incriminates itself

  Mary Assunta, Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance The tobacco industry lost the health argument 50 years ago, and in the past decade the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) developed the antidote to reverse the smoking epidemic. However the tobacco industry is stepping up direct attacks, particularly at WHO. Recently the industry took […]

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E-cigarettes and children: advocates walking on both sides of the street?

Post written by Prof Simon Chapman AO Follow Simon on Twitter: @simonchapman6 —- In a 2014 open letter to the WHO’s director general Margaret Chan signed by 53 researchers, it was argued “Controls on [ecigarette] advertising to nonsmokers, and particularly to young people are certainly justified, but a total ban would have many negative effects, […]

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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 […]

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