After a strong 1st quarter with our Global Forum on Human Rights and a Tobacco-Free World in Romania, our 2nd quarter proved to also be extremely productive. We saw a lot of movement on our Project Sunset (previously referred to as Moonshot).

Project Sunset is named in response to Philip Morris’ decade long “Project Sunrise” where they sought to create the “dawn of a new day” for themselves in the 1990s when the public health community was ramping up. At that time, Philip Morris sought to divide public health groups to weaken our community. Clearly, their divisive work failed and our community is stronger than ever. As such, it’s time our public health community further unites to set the sun on the tobacco industry for good.

Read more about Project Sunset here.

• Beverly Hills, CA is the New Norm for Tobacco Sales, Not the Outlier
• Why Beverly Hills Banned the Sale of Tobacco Products
• What’s Menthol Got to Do with It? Everything (Still)!
• Did Philip Morris International Confess to Murder?
• Watch ASH Executive Director Laurent Huber provide a statement on tobacco and human rights at the United Nations Human Rights Council
• Read ASH’s 2018 Annual Report here

• Tobacco’s big child labour problem
• Insight from a 6th grader in Connecticut
• Watch Harvard University Professor Steven Marks explain how human rights can accelerate tobacco control
• Opinion: Smoking age hike good for the military
• Brazil sues Big Tobacco over health costs from smoking
• Tobacco display ban ‘safeguards young people’
• BAT Could Face Legal Action After Giving Salesman 1,200 Free Cigarettes a Month

2019 has been a year of growth for all of our ASH programs. We made major strides with our Global Forum in Romania in March, pushing to have the marketing and sale of cigarettes recognized globally as a human rights violation. We continued that work at the United Nations Human Rights Council in June, building alliances and speaking before the whole session. We’ve worked with allies in the U.S. to strengthen our campaign to phase out the sale of cigarettes in local communities, and saw Beverly Hills propel themselves to be the 1st U.S. city to ban the sale of tobacco products (the ordinance just went into effect July 4, 2019!). And we’ve continued serving as a crucial resource worldwide in the fight to hold tobacco companies and their executives criminally liable for the harm they cause.

Tobacco products kill one person every 4.5 seconds. That’s 11 people a minute who need you to speak up and take action for their lives.

No one’s mother, father, sister, uncle, or friend deserves to live with a tobacco-related illness or die from their smoking addiction. Please consider making a donation today to help us end the tobacco epidemic. Together, we can build a healthier future for all of our children.

You can also see if your employer will match your donation to ASH by searching your company name here.