The International Institute of Legislative Affairs (ILA) has poked holes into the Finance Act 2021, saying some changes in the law will favour tobacco businesses. The Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) whose work is in policy and research argues that while the government is mandated to make laws that discourage tobacco intake, some aspects of the Act...
Overall cancer rates are higher among the wealthy, finds Cancer Research UK – but smoking and its cancers are now concentrated among the poor. Smoking causes almost twice as many cancer cases among the poor than the well-off, according to new findings that underline the close link between cigarettes and deprivation. About 11,247 cases of cancer...
Taxation is the most effective form of tobacco control, but the tobacco industry uses a variety of sophisticated pricing strategies to undermine tax increases. When a government budget announces an increase on the price of a packet of cigarettes, the tobacco company just passes it on to the consumer, right? No, not quite, according to...
Botswana’s renowned anti-tobacco activist Alice Mbongwe has received special recognition from World Health Organization (WHO) for her advocacy on tobacco control. Mbongwe is an employee of University of Botswana (UB) and also director of the Anti-Tobacco Network (ATN). Josephine Namboze, WHO executive director for Botswana on Tuesday said Mbongwe is one of six African awardees this...
Misinformation and attacks from well-funded international non-government organizations are among the key obstacles to the adoption of tobacco harm reduction (THR) and mitigation of deaths from smoking in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), according to health policy experts. Representatives from countries like India, Ukraine, Kenya, and Mexico enumerated the factors that are hindering LMICs from...
Smoking is responsible for nearly twice as many cancer cases in lower income groups compared to higher income groups, according to new estimates by Cancer Research UK. Over 11,000 cases of cancer were linked to smoking in the lowest income group, compared to around 6,000 in the highest. Decades of glitzy packaging and marketing by the...
Officials discovered a stash of unprocessed tobacco worth R10 million at a warehouse in the town's Thorn Park, suspected to have come through the Beit Bridge border post from Zimbabwe. East London police made the bust in collaboration with customs officers. A 31-year-old male suspect was arrested for possession of unprocessed tobacco and bribery. Eastern Cape police...
An Eastern Cape man is to appear in the East London Magistrate’s Court on Friday after he was allegedly found in possession of illicit tobacco worth R10 million. In a statement released on Friday, spokesperson for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) in the province, Captain Yolisa Mgolodela, said members of the Hawks’ Serious...
Local tobacco companies’ market share quadrupled during the country’s temporary sales ban in 2020, overtaking Big Tobacco’s pre-ban near-monopoly on South Africa’s tobacco industry. The sales ban did cause people to smoke less and prevented more than 2 000 tobacco-related deaths, but at the expense of progress made to curb illicit trade in...
Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Tobacco Control in Ghana have condemned the public display of smoking on social media by Mr. Michael Owusu Addo known in ShowBiz circles as Sarkodie. The CSO’s described the act by the two-time BET Award winner as unprofessional, unethical and unhealthy. They also expressed disappointment in Sarkodie for not considering...
