Endgame Training Course

Action on Smoking and Health

ASH’s Accomplishments in 2023

ASH’s work is based on the principle that the actions of the tobacco industry – producing, marketing, and selling addictive products that kill when use as intended – violates human rights, such as the right to health, that have been recognized at the highest level through international, regional, and national legal

2021 Annual Report

In 2021, despite operating under the global COVID-19 pandemic, ASH implemented numerous programs to accomplish its Mission, “to advocate for innovative legal and policy measures to end the global tobacco epidemic.” Click here to read ASH’s 2021 Annual Report> ASH’s programs advanced health policy at the local, national, and global

Global Mechanisms – The United Nations

This global mechanisms section encompasses official documents including resolutions, statements, letters, and more that pertain to tobacco control and human rights at the international level, but do not fall under a human rights treaty body. UN Statements, Resolutions and Declarations Relevant to Tobacco Control and Human Rights UN Statements on

Tobacco and Human Rights Basics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv-5fFAGEVA ASH Human Rights Resource Guide ASH put together this resource as a guide for advocates that would like to get involved in human rights reporting at the national level. It provides an overview of how to report to human rights treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review ASH Resource

FINALLY! Corrective Ads Published!

**UPDATE 3** – Beginning on November 26, 2017 the public will begin seeing long-awaited “corrective statements” by the tobacco industry on television and in newspapers. The major U.S. tobacco companies were ordered by the court to issue these ads because those companies had “deliberately deceived” the American public about topics

On Our Way to Achieving the “Impossible”

When ASH first began its post-2015 UN development agenda campaign in 2013, it was perceived as nearly impossible to integrate tobacco control into the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), let alone the Financing for Development (FfD) process. At this point, we are on our way to checking both items off

Obama Can Help End Tobacco Epidemic, Says ASH

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Megan Arendt Office: 202-659-4310 Email: arendtm@ash.org Obama Can Help End Tobacco Epidemic, Says ASH Action on Smoking & Health (ASH) Calls on President Obama to Choose Health Over Profits WASHINGTON, D.C. – June 24, 2015 – President Obama and U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Froman have the

A Victory for Standardized Packaging

Earlier this month, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released figures showing that tobacco and cigarette consumption in Australia have dropped dramatically. Household tobacco consumption and expenditure volume has dropped 17.5% in the last two and a half years. This extraordinary decline can be linked to two things. First, Australia has

Australian plain packaging leads to dramatic declines in tobacco use

The tobacco industry has been hit by the heaviest declines on record amid otherwise strong economic growth for the nation, the latest figures show. Treasurer Joe Hockey may have described the national accounts figures released Tuesday as a “terrific set of numbers”, but tobacco and cigarette consumption has taken a

Thailand Raises Minimum Age to 20 to Purchase Cigarettes

BANGKOK, 28 May 2014 (NNT) – The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the tobacco draft act which prohibits sale of cigarettes to those under 20 years old and raise punishment for offenders. Deputy Prime Minister YongyutnYuthawong said the draft act increased the minimum legal age for cigarette purchase from 18 to

The Wrinkler

We’ve unlocked the secret to expediting the aging process! You can now look far older than you really are. The secret is smoking!   Download a PDF of this page here> Where is a smoker’s face affected? How does a non-smoker’s face compare? Download a PDF of this page here:

Tobacco Taxes are Front & Center in Influential Post-2015 Report!

The UN’s post-2015 development goal process is still in full swing. Member states have spent the last week discussing ways to finance the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These discussions are all setting the stage for the Financing for Development (Ffd) conference in Addis Ababa this July, where UN member

Earth Day 2015 – The Unforeseen Consequences of Tobacco

Most people view cigarettes as a health problem, but they are a huge environmental problem as well. The entire life cycle of a cigarette has an impact on the environment – from growing the tobacco to throwing away the butt. Tobacco Farming Tobacco cultivation is responsible for a myriad of

Hillary pressed to take on Big Tobacco

Public health groups are urging newly minted Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to follow in her husband’s footsteps and take on Big Tobacco. The calls for Clinton to make the issue part of her campaign platform take place amid a growing push to raise the national smoking age to 21.

Use of E-Cigarettes Rises Sharply Among Teenagers, Report Says

E-cigarettes have arrived in the life of the American teenager. Use of the devices among middle- and high school students tripled from 2013 to 2014, according to federal data released on Thursday, bringing the share of high school students who use them to 13 percent — more than smoke traditional

Action Review: 1st Quarter Edition 2015

Tobacco and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) The inclusion of tobacco control in the Sustainable Development Goals has been in the works for several years. It is due to various advocacy efforts of the Framework Convention Alliance and the support of NGO partners and allied missions in New York and

Tobacco Free Generation

In Tasmania, Australia last week, a bill was introduced to the Legislative Council that would create a “Tobacco Free Generation.” You can read the draft text of the bill here>. The phrase tobacco free generation is used widely and it often has different meanings. Some use it to describe a

We’re Almost There!

In the past two and half years, ASH has been working to ensure that tobacco control is included in the new UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These goals are being created to set countries’ development agendas for the next 15 years. In the expiring UN Millennium Development Goals, tobacco control

New Global Fund to Help Countries Defend Smoking Laws

Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced on Wednesday that they had started a global fund to help low- and middle-income countries fight legal challenges to their smoking laws by the tobacco industry. The fund is modest, at least so far, with a total of $4 million

ASH participates in the World Conference on Tobacco or Health 2015

This week, several representatives of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) will be attending the World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Abu Dhabi. WCTOH is a five-day scientific conference where presenters highlight the latest developments in tobacco control and the efforts around the world to reduce tobacco use. This

Resources: Criminal Liability for Tobacco Executives

ASH Resources Blog: If Drug Dealers Can Be Found Criminally Liable, Can Big Tobacco? Description: Drug dealers can and have been charged with murder or manslaughter when death results from the drugs they sold. This same logic could apply to Big Tobacco. Quote: The inevitable question is then- Do you

Criminal Liability and Human Rights Violations

Tobacco products kill more people than alcohol, AIDS, car accidents, illegal drugs, murders and suicides combined. Left unchecked, tobacco use will kill 1 billion people this century. As one state Supreme Court recently noted, cigarettes likely constitute “the most dangerous product lawfully sold” to consumers. The lethal consequences of smoking

Videos

Learn more about ways Big Tobacco is targeting you, without your knowledge>   Learn more about ASH's social experiment to see if smoking is attractive on Tinder>     Learn more about the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)>   Watch more videos on ASH's YouTube Channel>

Publications

Click here to read the report   Policy Papers ASH works hard to inform and educate policy makers and the public about tobacco prevention and the tobacco industry. A number of informative policy papers and reports produced by ASH and the Framework Convention Alliance are found here> Additional Resources Case Studies

Plain Packaging for Tobacco Will Become the Global Norm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Megan Arendt Office: 202-659-4310 Email: arendtm@ash.org PLAIN PACKAGING FOR TOBACCO WILL BECOME THE GLOBAL NORM But will the U.S. be last? WASHINGTON, D.C. – March 12, 2015 – Yesterday, Britain’s House of Commons overwhelmingly approved a law requiring plain packaging for tobacco products, just one day