Author: Chris Bostic, Policy Director, Action on Smoking and Health The FCTC changed the world and my life. I had a strange start to my career in tobacco policy. My very first exposure to that cause and community was not as a local volunteer or through a college internship. It
February 10, 2024 – COP10 was particularly special because several cross-cutting issues – human rights, the environment, and the tobacco endgame – were on the agenda. ASH and the Global Alliance for Tobacco Control (then the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control) led advocacy for a human rights decision at COP8
February 9, 2024 – Today is the second to last day of the 10th Conference of the Parties, and the Parties still have agenda items left to discuss, but they have also gotten through several of their important agenda items. Yesterday, the government of Ecuador proposed a Decision on the
February 8, 2024 – How the Sausage Gets Made Few of us have ever made actual sausage. But we’ll explain the process anyway, and then compare it to how things get done at FCTC COP. To make sausage, you need some casing, some meat and spices. You grind everything up, and
February 7, 2024 – Today was another packed day for the ASH delegation here in Panama. Several of ASH’s policy priorities have come up on the agenda of the COP. Unfortunately, fruitful debates on these items have been delayed because of country Parties spouting tobacco industry rhetoric. However, that has
February 6, 2024 – A typical day at the Conference of the Parties begins very early and ends very late, and today was no different. At 7:00 AM, ASH begins by meeting with our civil society allies to discuss strategy for the day. Starting at 9:00 AM, we attend meetings
February 5, 2024 – The in-person portion of the 10th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) began today in Panama City. In a very fitting opening message, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General said, “We must continue advocating for
By: Chris Bostic, Policy Director at ASH Ending the tobacco epidemic is not only my job but a personal mission in life. William Lloyd Garrison, the “Golden Trumpet” of the abolition movement in the 19th century, said “That which is not just is not law.” I would modify it for
Author: Alexa Arejian, ASH Project Assistant August 2022 – This year, the National Conference on Tobacco or Health (NCTOH) was hosted in New Orleans, Louisiana, for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. NCTOH is one of the largest U.S. conferences for tobacco control professionals and focuses on best practice
Testimony from Chris Bostic, Policy Director at ASH March 16, 2022 Hello Madame Chair and Committee members. Thank you for considering this important bill and for the chance to weigh in. My name is Chris Bostic, and I am the policy director for Action on Smoking and Health, the nation’s
Beverly Hills and Manhattan Beach, California Make History for Public Health Their Ordinances to Ban the Sale of Commercial Tobacco are in Effect Today Media Contact: Megan Arendt (202) 390 – 9513 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 5, 2020 – On January 1st, two small cities in California made giant strides
ASH Webinar on Tobacco Cessation, Production & Sales in Light of COVID-19 April 16, 2020 Statement from Chris Bostic, Deputy Director for Policy at ASH I’m mostly going to focus on the responsibilities of governments in the context of tobacco and COVID-19, and I think it falls into three broad
By: Dr. Harry Lando, Professor, Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota Chris Bostic, Deputy Director for Policy, Action on Smoking & Health We are living through extraordinary times, and most of us are being forced to reorder our lives without notice. For many, coronavirus means staying
On January 2, 2020, ASH staff Liz Furgurson and Chris Bostic (pictured above, second from the right) attended a public hearing of the DC City Council Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, which is considering a ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products. Watch the recording here. Both gave formal
The Beverly Hills City Council has voiced unanimous support for ending the sale of tobacco products in their city. Currently the city’s Health and Safety Commission is researching policy options to achieve that goal. They will report back to the council in the next few months. A final ordinance is
We hope you’ve had a healthy and happy 2018. Here at ASH, it’s been a productive year. One thing we are very proud of is how much our small staff of 6 people accomplishes. We wanted to share with you some of our achievements this year and the fantastic team
This collaborative analysis from the National Cancer Institute and the World Health Organization is the result of several years’ work from noted experts in economics, public health and law. It is the most detailed look yet at the economic harm caused by tobacco use. ASH Deputy Director Chris Bostic was
This year for World No Tobacco Day on May 31 the World Health Organization has recommended that countries adopt plain packaging as a way to reduce tobacco use, however so far mostly only rich countries have been able to afford to implement the changes. read more>
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>
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
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,
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.
By Chris Bostic, for Health and Trade Network As the role of tobacco companies in trade agreements on both sides of the Atlantic has been highlighted by a series of controversial events in recent weeks, this HaT paper is presented as a summary of the current key issues in the
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
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.
