Every step of a tobacco product’s life cycle degrades our planet and decimates our natural resources. The tobacco industry doesn’t just hurt our health. It tears down trees, erodes soil and produces toxic waste. And that’s even before its deadly products are sold to consumers. Once used, tobacco products pollute the air, poison fish and...
All the stakeholders must do more to tackle the menace of smoking The recent call by the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) and Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK) for an end to using smoking scenes in movies, music video and other aspects of the entertainment industry, is one we wholeheartedly endorse. According to...
Scientific papers suggesting that smokers are less likely to fall ill with covid-19 are being discredited as links to the tobacco industry are revealed, report Stéphane Horel and Ties Keyzer In the early days of the pandemic, media outlets around the world reported that smokers seemed to be under-represented among patients seriously ill with covid-19...
The hazards of tobacco handling and toxic exposure to pesticides used in tobacco farming are undisputed. Child labour in tobacco rightfully falls under the category “worst forms of child labour” due to the hazardous nature of work in the tobacco sector. According to International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions, child labour in such sectors should...
The advertising regulator said the ad was irresponsible for implying that the product had a mood-altering and stimulant effect. An ad for a nicotine pouch has been banned for implying that it had a stimulant effect that made gaming more enjoyable. The video ad for Nordic Spirit, seen in December on the Crunchyroll anime streaming service...
To mark World Health Day, Croakey’s Melissa Sweet digs into a report investigating tobacco industry efforts to undermine public health regulations globally. Many of the report’s themes are relevant for other industries that harm health; its section on the “revolving door” between industry and government/policy makers brings to mind the fossil fuels sector. In the first...
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced today (30 March) that it will be considering measures to enforce fees for tobacco companies to pay for the litter created by cigarettes. Such measures would require the tobacco industry to pay the full disposal costs of tobacco waste products as part of a regulatory extended...
Will the new Biden administration choose science over politics? The commandment to “believe science” has become a rallying cry, one echoed by Joe Biden during his presidential campaign when he promised to “choose science over fiction.” If that is true, his new administration should embrace tobacco harm -reduction, a public health strategy that, instead...
The tobacco industry isn’t shy about the mega-profits it rakes in year after year; major tobacco companies routinely and proudly boast their multi-billion-dollar-revenues to their stakeholders. But what they don’t like to advertise, at least not to the public, is how they got rich: by knowingly addicting people to their products and preying on...
Cigarette prices have decreased sharply from their highly inflated levels during the sales ban, but are substantially higher than their pre-lockdown levels. The average retail price of cigarette brands produced by the multinationals is nearly 5% higher than before the sales ban, while the average retail price produced by the local manufacturers is 30%...
