Kenyan doctors urge cigarette smokers to use safer alternatives
Kenyan and other African medics have issued a call through the African Harm Reduction Alliance (AHRA) to the World Health Organisation (WHO) to save millions of cigarette smokers by supporting safer alternatives. The call by the medics comes as the number of cigarette smokers continues to surge in Kenya and Africa, according to the Tobacco...
Good COP, bad COP: A tale of two COPs
This COP season, it may be time to draw parallels between two very similar gatherings with diametrically opposite profiles and approaches. Climate change and tobacco-related harms. Both are urgent issues facing humankind. Both are being addressed by global treaties and conventions. For both the problems, a wide range of solutions are coming from old...
The WHO “Postponed” Tobacco Harm Reduction Talks Until 2023
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) provisional agenda for its COP9 which is currently ongoing in Geneva, had indicated that any discussions pertaining to tobacco harm reduction (THR) will be moved to COP10 taking place in 2023. The WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) provisional agenda for COP9, was released on August 5th, and it had...
Africa: Is the World Health Organization Slowing Down the Efforts to Reduce Tobacco Harm?
On the 2nd of November 2021, the Vapour Products Association of South Africa (VPASA) organized a Diginar (digital seminar) with an unequivocal title: WHO’s (World Health Organization) Dictatorial Tobacco Control Policies Ahead of COP-9. The ninth session of Conference of the Parties (COP 9) is being held from November 8th to 13, 2021. The Framework...
Tobacco plain packaging momentum continues worldwide with 38 countries and territories moving forward with regulations
New international report also shows 134 countries and territories now require graphic picture warnings on cigarette packages TORONTO, Nov. 9, 2021 /CNW/ - An international report released today by the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) shows there is tremendous momentum worldwide for tobacco plain packaging. There are now 38 countries and territories moving forward with plain packaging, with 21 having...
The global conference on tobacco control starts today
The Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) today opens its ninth session (COP 9). One significant point to be discussed by the Parties is a potential new funding strategy, seen as a possible means of strengthening and expanding the support that can be offered to Parties...
COP9: the Secret Tobacco Control Meeting You Can’t Attend
The ninth meeting of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) will be held next week, from Nov. 8-13. FCTC is an international treaty organization, created under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO) FCTC’s 180 member countries (“Parties” to the treaty) meet every two years—although last year’s conference was postponed until now due to...
The vicious cycle of tobacco use and mental illness – a double burden on health
The factsheet identifies a feedback loop between mental ill health and tobacco use. Mental illness makes people twice as likely to use tobacco and, at the same time, tobacco makes people more vulnerable to mental health concerns.
With no vapers at the COP9 table, is WHO slamming the door on tobacco harm reduction?
Johannesburg - When the Ninth Conference of the Parties (COP9) to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) kicks off later this month, there will be an important voice missing at the talks: members of the vapour products industry. While it’s bad enough that an industry that’ll be directly affected by...
Tobacco industry ‘preyed on’ governments during COVID-19 — report
“Although smoking is identified as a risk factor for more severe symptoms of COVID-19, for the tobacco industry, it was business as usual,” said Dr. Mary Assunta, lead author of the Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2021, during a press briefing Tuesday.
