Nigeria: Tobacco companies using intermediaries ‘to promote image’ – Report
"We need to take action against the tobacco industry because for decades they have marketed deadly products to children and older people around the world..." Tobacco multinationals in Nigeria use intermediaries to ”clean their image and grow their businesses”, thereby undermining the implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a new report has...
Coronavirus: Government should ban use of shisha in Ghana
A policy document on COVID-19 and tobacco use by the School of Public Health, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology has called for the ban of Shisha use in Ghana to prevent the spread of COVID-19. It further called for the ban of the sale and importation of tobacco products including cigarettes during the...
India: Tobacco taxes too low to control smoking
Karnataka's example shows that strictly enforcing existing laws could be a better answer, says study Smoking is a public health issue in India, with 100 million adults using products such as cigarettes and beedis. One tool the government has is taxes. But a study from Karnataka shows taxes are uneven and too low to limit...
What happens when Big Tobacco’s pandemic donations tangle with Philippine politicians drafting new laws?
Major tobacco firms have long used corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities to cosy up to government officials and policy makers across the world. In the Philippines, pandemic donations have been made at a time when an industry-friendly vaping bill was being pushed in Congress. Image: Eco-Business A recent industry-friendly bill could undermine recent tobacco control...
India: Strengthening Tobacco Control Laws for an India After COVID-19
Earlier last month, India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare placed in the public domain the ‘Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) (Amendment) Bill 2020‘ for pre-legislative consultations. If passed by parliament, it will be one of the first laws with significant...
THE BIG TOBACCO ALLIES
How tobacco companies use intermediaries to foster their corporate social responsibility initiatives and promote their image in Nigeria A report exposing the use of allies by tobacco multinationals for their benefit was launched on Friday 29 January 2021 in Lagos, Nigeria. Prepared by Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), with support from the African Tobacco...
What does the proposed tobacco bill mean for vaping in SA?
This opinion piece is part of VPASA's (Vapour Products Association of South Africa) We Are Not Tobacco (WANT) campaign, which seeks to differentiate electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) from combustible tobacco products. With South Africa moving towards the promulgation of the Control of Tobacco and Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems Bill (2018), health organisations and tobacco-control...
Nigeria: Again, Nigeria Gets It Wrong On Tobacco Control Funding
Nigeria’s 2021 national budget has not disappointed pessimists. Like previous years public health was relegated to the back seat in terms of priority and funding. The breakdown of the approved budget shows that the health sector received only N547 billion (five hundred and forty-seven billion naira), representing about seven per cent of the budget’s total...
Turkey: Smoking, alcohol make COVID vaccines less effective
Smoking, drinking have negative effect on body's immune system, may reduce effectiveness of vaccines, says doctor Smoking and drinking depress the immune system and so could reduce the effectiveness of vaccines for illnesses such as the flu and coronavirus, according to a senior Turkish physician. Dr. Cevdet Erdol from the Health Sciences University in the Turkish...
Australia: Smoking causes half of Indigenous Australian deaths over 45, study shows
Researchers call for more spending and shift in health messaging after discovering figures were underestimated by more than 50%. Smoking-related illnesses cause half of all deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples over the age of 45, accounting for 10,000 premature preventable deaths in the past decade alone, a new study has found. On average,...
