South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal ruled this week that the government was wrong to ban the sale of cigarettes at the start of the nationwide hard lockdown in March 2020. The court found that there was no scientific justification for the continued ban on the sale of tobacco products. Tobacco businesses say they are still recovering...
The Kenya Tobacco Control Board (TCB) has added its voice to the initiative to adopt alternative crops in tobacco-growing areas, saying the growth of tobacco is a threat to the environment. Speaking in Kakamega Dr John Musau, a TCB board member, regretted that tobacco farmers were left with acidic and unproductive soils after years of growing the...
The US Food and Drug Administration has ordered Juul Labs Inc. products to be removed from the US market as the agency issued marketing denial orders for its vaping devices and pods. "As a result, the company must stop selling and distributing these products. In addition, those currently on the U.S. market must be removed, or risk enforcement...
On the World Oceans Day last week, themed “Revitalisation: Collective Action for the Ocean”, tobacco control advocates singled out the industry’s destructive nature in so far as the blue economy is concerned. A report published by the Global Centre for Good Governance in Tobacco Control (GGTC) on the same day estimated that the world has...
JOHANNESBURG – A striking NO to tobacco mural painted by pupils from Sharonlea Primary in Randburg has been announced as the winner of the Sibo Manqoba Schools Mural Art Competition. The Johannesburg school was awarded the top honours after it beat other selected schools who were all asked to produce artworks in the form of...
Johannesburg – The African Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA) has called for urgent regulation of e-cigarettes through the swift implementation of the Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill. The non-profit, non-government, professional organisations are joined by South Africa’s public health organisations in calling for the implementation of the tobacco control bill, which requires...
It’s often said by experts that young people are the ones that are most vulnerable to smoking, with nearly nine out of 10 smokers taking up the habit during their teenage years. Flavoured smokeless tobacco products, such as vaping, have been blamed for making this unhealthy habit more appealing to the youth. But thanks to...
Message from WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti The world marks World No Tobacco Day on 31 May every year, to raise awareness of the negative health, social, economic and environmental impacts of tobacco production and use. This year’s theme, “Tobacco: Threat to our environment”, aims to highlight the environmental impact of the entire...
Ernest Ajayi, a 45 years-old civil servant who resides in Abuja, recalls that he picked up smoking because he thought “smoking made people look successful, classy and respected”. He said growing up, many movies portrayed the rich and influential people were smokers and that enticed him to start smoking in his early twenties at the...
*Says vaccinations, natural immunity to slash Africa’s COVID deaths by 94% in 2022 Ndubuisi Francis and Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja with agency report The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised the alarm on the extent to which tobacco damages both the environment and human health, calling for steps to make the industry more accountable for the...
