By: Laurent Huber, Executive Director of ASH I have now spent over two decades working on UN treaties and international processes with the aim of ending the negative health, social and economic consequences of tobacco products, and I am often asked: why? Why don’t you just concentrate at the local
Media Contact: Megan Manning ManningM@ash.org (202) 390 – 9513 New Report Outlines Increase in Tobacco Companies Interfering in U.S. Public Health Policymaking Safeguards are Needed to Ensure Public Health Goals are Prioritized Over Industry Profits WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 5, 2023 – Today, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) released
Statement from Laurent Huber, Executive Director of Action on Smoking and Health, Supporting British Prime Minister’s Smoke-Free Generation Proposal October 4, 2023 Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) welcomes and applauds the announcement by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak detailing his government’s plans to introduce a bill forever banning the
The FDA Continues to Delay Protecting Americans from Mentholated Cigarettes August 2023 was the deadline announced by FDA to propose a rule WASHINGTON, DC – AUGUST 31, 2023 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) missed their self-imposed deadline to propose a life-saving rule to ban menthol as a
By Kelsey Romeo-Stuppy, ASH and Dr. Raglan Maddox, ANU College of Health and Medicine While commercial tobacco use negatively impacts the right to health of all people, there are many groups whom have been intentionally targeted by the tobacco industry and their affiliates.[1] Groups have had their culture exploited for
Media Contact: Megan Manning ManningM@ash.org (202) 390 – 9513 208 Organizations Unite to Call on UN Committee to Recommend Stronger Tobacco Control Policies The UN Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is making recommendations on Racism and the Right to Health for its 182 party
After planting an apple tree, it will be years before you get an actual apple. But it is very satisfying when you do, and that first apple will taste all the sweeter because you planted it. ASH and our supporters planted a seed over five years ago when we launched
Media Contact: Megan Manning (202) 390 – 9513 New Data Compilation Shows Scope of Tobacco Industry Lobbying in the U.S. Tobacco Companies Hire Hundreds of Lobbyists as They Post Court-Ordered Signs about Decades of Lies WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 14, 2023 – Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) released a
Agenda Item 4 of the Second Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (INC2) Option 2 – Possible core obligation: banning, phasing out and/or reducing the use of problematic and avoidable plastic products I am speaking on
June 2, 2023 – A sense of forward motion. No matter how many treaties have been negotiated throughout history, each one is terra incognita. Planning and agenda setting is imperative but the people drawing up those plans are not seers. Expecting to follow a strict timeline or even using it
June 1, 2023 – Now for the hard part. Today the INC continued in “contact groups” (breakout groups, really). Dividing in two brings the prospect of doubling output. I’m not sure if output doubles, but if it does, it may be less about doubling the conversations and more about halving
May 31, 2023 – Breakthrough!? Day three technically began at midnight as the working group trying to sort out the rules of procedure toiled until 1 am. They reported back to the full plenary at a more reasonable hour this morning with an interpretative statement that they asked to be
Media Contact: Megan Manning (202) 390 – 9513 PARIS, FRANCE – May 31, 2023 – On the occasion of World No Tobacco Day, health and environmental advocates gathered at the UN Plastic Treaty Conference in Paris to call for the elimination of cigarette filters. They drew attention to the fact
May 30, 2023 – Writing after 9:00 pm Paris time, Day 2 is not over, and the most important part of today is likely still ahead of us. In fact, it is almost certainly ahead of us, since nothing has been accomplished yet today. For these final few hours, the
May 29, 2023 – Today launched the second negotiating session of the UN treaty to end plastic pollution, held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. We have five days to debate one of the most important issues facing humanity – catastrophic levels of plastic pollution. In one way, this was personally
Media Contact: Megan Manning (202) 390 – 9513 Tobacco Harms Health and the Environment: Urgent Action Needed at the UN World No Tobacco Day is May 31, falling during the second round of negotiations for the UN Plastic Pollution Treaty in Paris, France from May 29 – June 2, 2023
Today, May 21, 2023 marks the 20th anniversary of the adoption of The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) by the World Health Assembly. The FCTC is the first international treaty negotiated under the auspices of WHO, and it entered into force on February 27, 2005. To many,
If you could press a button and save lives, how long would you wait to press it? 1 minute? 1 hour? How about a day or a week? What about a year? Today (April 28, 2023) marks one year since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced their proposed rule
In the last week, government agencies in two countries – the Netherlands and Belgium – have recommended a complete ban on the sale of cigarette filters. First, congratulations to our colleagues for their work in pushing this and supplying research. This could not have happened in a vacuum. Second, congratulations
Our goal at ASH is to protect everyone from the harms of tobacco. One way we strive to achieve that goal is by reducing health inequities and fighting for everyone’s right to health. In honor of International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), here are some of the
Today, 200 million of the world’s one billion people who smoke are women[1] and 2.15 million women die from tobacco use every year.[2] Over 71% of those women live in low- and middle-income countries[3], where the burden of tobacco-related illness and death is heaviest.[4] While overall, smoking rates are decreasing,
Public health, and more specifically tobacco control, sits at the vortex of many important social issues such as development, human rights, law, and social justice. Tobacco companies have been aggressively targeting African Americans for generations with menthol cigarettes. As a result, over 85% of African Americans who smoke, smoke menthol
CDC Reports: More Than Half of All Americans Support Ending the Sale of Tobacco Products Research Brief Released in Preventing Chronic Disease Media Contact: Megan Arendt-Manning (202) 390 – 9513 WASHINGTON, DC – February 2, 2023 – A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office on Smoking
February 4th is World Cancer Day. Cancer is the second largest cause of death worldwide, and smoking is the leading cause, directly responsible for 30% of cancer deaths. Cancer takes the lives of about ten million people annually (600,000+ in the U.S.) and costs the global economy about 1.5% of
Oral statement | Action on Smoking and Health | January 31, 2023 Proposed Objective: To protect future generations from the environmental, health and other burdens of plastic pollution. The objective should be simple and avoid qualifiers such as “in accordance with domestic or international law” or “without undue encumbrance on
