In August, ASH welcomed a new staffer to the team, Carol Maytum (pictured top right). She is based out of Sacramento, California and gives us boots on the ground for the West Coast! Carol is a veteran tobacco control advocate who will lead our California Pilot Program to promote the need for more jurisdictions to phase out the sale of tobacco products.

Her work will build on the success of Beverly Hills and Manhattan Beach, CA last year, both of which are currently transitioning all of their tobacco retailers to remove tobacco products by January 1, 2021. We are excited to see her push this program forward, and we look forward to replicating her work in other states as funding allows. Please join us in welcoming Carol to the ASH family!

• ASH began a webinar series in March to discuss the co-morbidity between tobacco use and COVID-19. We’ve continued to host webinars that share timely research and resources with advocates. Recordings and resources here.
• The American Medical Association joined our lawsuit with the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council against the FDA for their inaction to remove menthol tobacco products from the market.
• Managing Attorney Kelsey Romeo-Stuppy also shared with advocates how and why they should join ASH in using human rights reports to strengthen tobacco control work.
• ASH hosted a Facebook Live Chat with cessation expert Martin Raw to discuss how we can improve our global approach to cessation by incorporating human rights elements.
• ASH hosted a Facebook Live Chat with Dr. Carla Williams, Interim Director for the Howard University Cancer Center, on the co-morbidity between COVID-19 and tobacco. Kelsey also spoke on the live chat about how we can use an international treaty to enhance badly needed cessation support.
• ASH submitted a statement for the 75^th Session of the UN Human Rights Council.
• In response to many advocates seeking additional information, we developed our COVID-19 and Tobacco Policy and Communications Toolkit here.
• And we maintain this COVID-19 resource center for advocates and the general public.

• WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control – time for a civil society equivalent?
• Philip Morris International front group Foundation for a Smoke-free World released a report on which tobacco companies are transforming their business models, but the report is really just tobacco industry self-promotion as they attempt to paint themselves in a positive light. Read what our watchdog partners had to say.
• Formula 1 is one of the last global sports series that allows tobacco companies to market their brands and products to fans, accepting USD$100 million in sponsorships from the tobacco industry in 2019. We joined the STOP Partners and 100+ organizations in calling for Formula 1 to stop promoting deadly products to their fans.
• Germany will finally ban outdoor tobacco advertising in 2022, becoming the last country in the European Union to do so.
• Truth partnered with The Daily Show to highlight how the tobacco industry turned the pandemic into profit.
• Fantastic editorial from Ruth Malone and Dr. Valerie Yerger in the British Medical Journal’s Tobacco Control section on the pervasiveness of racism in U.S. tobacco history.
• Interesting deep dive into Philip Morris’ decades-old marketing schemes to recruit new smokers.

Our work to end the tobacco epidemic has never been more crucial, as we collectively battle the respiratory COVID-19 pandemic. We need to encourage any and every person who smokes to quit for good, starting now. 1-800-QUIT-NOW remains free and open for all.

As society moves health to the top of our priority list, this is also the time for more communities to begin considering phasing out the sale of tobacco products. Tobacco products remain the #1 cause of preventable death and kill when used exactly as intended. For that reason, they shouldn’t be sold.

If you agree with us and want to see our California Pilot Program expanded to more communities, please make a generous donation to support ASH’s crucial, life-saving work. With your support, we can prevent hundreds of millions of deaths from tobacco use.