By: Jimmy Kolker, HHS Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs Summary: Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable illness and death in the United States. This May 31st, we celebrate World No Tobacco Day exit disclaimer icon – a day to highlight not only the significant risks and tragic, preventable
ASH Statement of Support for Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) is a Washington, DC based non-governmental organization fully devoted to supporting global health and international tobacco control efforts. As the oldest anti-tobacco organization in the U.S., ASH was formed in 1967 in
The family of Tony Gwynn, a baseball Hall of Famer who died of salivary gland cancer in 2014, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit Monday against the tobacco industry, charging that Gwynn had been manipulated into the addiction to smokeless tobacco that ultimately killed him. Read more>
French insurer AXA plans to stop investing in the tobacco industry, citing the impact of smoking on public health, and said it plans to sell its 1.8 billion euros ($2.02 billion) of assets in the sector. AXA said it would divest its 200 million euros of equity holdings in tobacco
The tobacco industry lost its High Court challenge to the UK government’s regulations on standardised “plain” cigarette packaging. Read more>
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has rejected Philip Morris USA’s appeal of a $25 million punitive damages award to the family of a dead smoker in Oregon. The justices on Monday are leaving in place a state appeals court ruling that likened the cigarette maker’s role in smoker Michelle Schwarz’s
Cancer Council fully supports proposals to ban smoking in the presence of children, and has asked whether it’s time to actively consider a generational phase-out of cigarettes. Read more>
The embattled tobacco industry is struggling to fight off one of its fiercest and possibly most dangerous foes to date: the World Health Organization. The Hong Kong native who has run the U.N. body for the past decade, Margaret Chan, takes evident pride in being called Big Tobacco’s public enemy
The Obama administration on Thursday announced controversial new rules for electronic cigarettes, cigars, hookahs and pipe tobacco, including barring the sales of the products to teens under 18 years old. The new requirements, which go into effect in 90 days, mark the first time the Food and Drug Administration has
A Dutch lawyer and lung cancer patient are planning to take tobacco companies to court for for producing cigarettes designed to turn people into addicts as quickly as possible. Lawyer Benedicte Ficq and cancer victim Anne Marie van Veen are putting together a criminal case against cigarette producers, arguing that
The harmful impacts of smoking go well beyond each individual smoker. Cigarettes have a negative impact on the environment throughout their entire life cycle – from growing the tobacco to disposing of the butts. ASH blogs have highlighted several of the environmental harms of tobacco, including cigarette butt pollution. In
Supporters say they appear to be effective. Critics say there are better and safer ways to quit smoking. Read both sides in the Wall Street Journal here>
ASH Policy Director Chris Bostic, Richard Daynard, and Tamar Lawrence-Samuel (Corporate Accountability International) shed some light on the untapped potential in the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. “Article 19 has similar—if not greater—potential to curb the operations of the industry, and therefore the tobacco epidemic.” Read on>
The resolution urges companies to agree to participate in mediation of any alleged human rights violations if requested by certain governmental agencies identified by the OECD. It calls for the companies to mediate disputes involving, among other things, freedom of association and collective bargaining, the elimination of forced or compulsory
This new research by the WHO shows the huge opportunity governments have from increasing taxes on tobacco. WHO found that if cigarette tax increased by US$ 0.8 (or 1 international $) per pack worldwide, as many as 15 million lives of current smokers could be saved, and US$141 billion in
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Megan Arendt Office: 202-659-4310 Email: arendtm@ash.org Does Tobacco Violate Human Rights? Inter-American Commission Ponders Question WASHINGTON, D.C. – April 6, 2016 – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) heard testimony from experts yesterday on why tobacco should be considered a human rights issue. The thematic
View the presentation powerpoint in Spanish and in English. Talking points are below per speaker. Video Disclaimer: The first two presenters will speak in Spanish. ASH staff present third and fourth in English. Background and press information can be found here. 1. Oscar A. Cabrera, The O’Neill Institute for National
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: ASH: Megan Arendt / ArendtM@ash.org O’Neill Institute: Karen Teber / Km463@georgetown.edu FIC Argentina: Patricia Gutkowski/ prensa@ficargentina.org WASHINGTON, DC (March 29, 2016) — For the first time, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights takes up tobacco use as a human rights issue during a hearing on Tuesday,
The evidence is clear: smoking is horrible for your health, and quitting benefits not only your health, but your wallet. These things are fairly obvious, and non-smokers often ask the same question: “Why don’t smokers quit?” In fact, about 70% of all smokers want to quit. In any given year,
ASH joins allies to demand that the U.S. Department of Justice open an investigation on British American Tobacco (BAT)’s alleged corruption in East Africa.
On April 5, 2016, Action on Smoking and Health and two of our partner organizations, Fundación InterAmericana del Corazón Argentina and the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, will present to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on the Right to Health, Tobacco Industry Interference, and on
Big Tobacco took it on the chin Wednesday when Chicago raised its smoking age to 21, outlawed discounts, slapped a $6 million tax on cigars, roll-your-own tobacco and smokeless tobacco and banned chaw altogether at sports stadiums. Read more>
California lawmakers voted Thursday to raise the legal age for purchasing and using tobacco and e-cigarettes from 18 to 21, putting the nation’s most populous state on the brink of becoming only the second after Hawaii to bar teenagers from lighting up, dipping or vaping. Before it can become law,
The Secretariat for the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) recently sent the following Note Verbal to all Missions of Parties in Geneva to alert them to prevent interference from the tobacco industry on the tracking and tracing system. FCTC Secretariat Note Verbale_industry interference_4-Mar-2016
A Manhattan Supreme Court judge has awarded a co-op apartment owner more than $120,000 in maintenance and fees after she sued over damage to her place from people smoking in neighboring apartments, which she said also affected her health. Read more>
