Earlier this month the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary announced an intention to raise taxes on e-cigarette products during the annual budget statement presentation to Parliament. This announcement was received with excitement and condemnation in equal measure from tobacco control enthusiasts and the tobacco industry, respectively. In recent years, innovation in the tobacco industry has led...
By late 1953, the tobacco industry faced a crisis of calamitous scope. Smoking had been positively linked to the dramatic rise of lung cancer. It worked to condemn, confuse and erode the very science that now threatened to destroy its prized, highly popular and exclusive product. The tobacco industry has been seeking since the 1950s to...
The tobacco industry has been seeking influence by funding research that supports its business and suppressing studies unfavourable to its positions. By late 1953, the industry faced a crisis. Smoking had been linked to the rise of lung cancer. Though health concerns had been raised for decades, there was a powerful expansion and consolidation of...
Research is pointing to growing tobacco use in Africa while the reverse is true elsewhere. This is as worrying as it’s perplexing, considering the sustained anti-tobacco use campaigns carried out on the continent by lobbies. In a University of Chicago report, researchers who created a Tobacco Atlas after surveying 63 countries say there are more...
Vision for Alternative Development (VALD), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has advocated a hike in taxes on tobacco products in the country. According toVALD’s Programmes Director, Labram Musah, increasing the tax on these products would reduce its consumption as tobacco related deaths exceeded 6,700 annually in the country with an economic burden estimated at GH¢ 97 million. He...
In Summary The tobacco industry is a major driver of deforestation, which is another significant contributor to carbon emissions. Research continues to show that the tobacco industry cuts down over 500 million trees every year to produce cigarettes. The Egypt government is hosting the 27th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP27), with a...
Some Non-Government Organisations, NGOs, have called on the Federal Government to intensify the implementation of graphic health warning on tobacco products. The Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance, NTCA, and Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids made the call on Tuesday at a news conference in Abuja. The Chairman of NTCA, Akinbode Oluwafemi, said that since the National Tobacco Control...
The Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA) has expressed concern over what it described as low level of compliance to the law on graphic health warnings on tobacco products in Nigeria. It said one of the major concerns was that other tobacco products such as snuff and shisha, which has become notoriously popular among young people,...
Strict new smoking laws for South Africa will soon be tabled before the National Assembly, where the Department of Health wants to tighten its control on where smokers can light up, and better regulate the emerging vaping sector. Broadly, the draft laws cast a wide net to create zero-smoking spaces in public areas while also...
Since 2020, the city of Cape Town has been working with the Partnership for Healthy Cities to increase smoke-free compliance in public buildings and raise awareness about the harms of second-hand tobacco smoke. Tobacco prevalence in South Africa is estimated to be around 20% of the adult population (aged 15+)1 and causes thousands of...
