If you ever find yourself browsing the galleries at the British Museum in London, or wandering the halls of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, you might find it surprising that the art you’re admiring is sponsored in part by an industry that causes 8 million deaths every year. Arts sponsorship is one way Big Tobacco tries to divert the public and policymakers’ attention away from the considerable harm it causes to human health, the environment and societies. A new World Health Organization report suggests the world is slowly turning away from cigarettes; thanks to effective tobacco ..read more

As the 2021 season draws to a close, controversy around host countries and sponsors linked to harm and death continues to surround the sport of Formula 1. In 2020, we sounded the alarm. STOP’s Driving Addiction: F1 and Tobacco Advertising report confirmed that tobacco company sponsorship in Formula 1 had risen dramatically. In 2018, Philip Morris International (PMI) was the sole tobacco sponsor, spending an estimated US $50 million. By 2019, PMI increased its spend and British American Tobacco (BAT) rejoined the sport, bringing overall tobacco industry spending to an estimated US $100 million ..read more

Every two years, Parties to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) gather for the Conference of the Parties (COP) to discuss the advancement of the global health treaty. COVID-19 disrupted plans for an in-person meeting in 2020, so in November 2021, delegates convened virtually for a rescheduled COP9. The Parties spent five days holding important discussions and making decisions aimed at strengthening tobacco control globally and aiding recovery from COVID-19. Delegates at COP9 moved forward with key decisions to promote the implementation of the FCTC ..read more

Where do cigarettes come from? The farms the tobacco is grown on? The factories that transform the tobacco into the products we see on store shelves? The corner store that sells them? The pack they come in? All are correct answers. Each of these is a step in the supply chain that transforms tobacco from seed to cigarette butt. And there are even more steps in between these. A great number of parties are involved—some are small, local operations, while others are huge multinational corporations. To add to the complexity, tobacco is oft ..read more

Statement from STOP, a Global Tobacco Industry Watchdog (New York, October 11, 2021) — STOP supports the declaration rejecting tobacco industry interference and supporting pandemic recovery at the Ninth Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP9) to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). COP9 is a global gathering of government delegations to advance the world’s first health treaty, the WHO FCTC. The declaration, which is widely supported, emphasizes accelerating implementation of the treaty. The tobacco industry makes and sells addictive products ..read more

“We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, said on March 11, 2020. He had just declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. At the time, 81 countries hadn’t reported any cases at all, and 57 had reported only 10 cases or fewer. That quickly changed as the virus spread and, as much of the world keenly remembers, cast an ominous shadow across the entire globe. The tobacco industry lost little time finding ways to get what it wanted during this particularly dark period. The 2021 Global Tobacco Industry Interferenc ..read more

Civil society groups find clear increase in industry lobbying and donations Indonesia, Japan, Switzerland and Dominican Republic least able to prevent industry meddling; Botswana, Chile, India and Spain among countries making progress Read the press release in French and Spanish New York, November 2, 2021 — A new report from tobacco industry watchdog STOP reveals that the tobacco industry embraced the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to gain influence, meddle in life-saving health policies and secure preferential treatment. Reports from civil society organizations in 80 countries, analyzed ..read more

An increase in young people becoming addicted to e-cigarettes, and specifically British American Tobacco (BAT)’s Vuse e-cigarette, could be looming around the corner. Recent trends and policies have converged to create grim conditions in the United States. A 2021 study showed Vuse is already the second-most popular e-cigarette among middle- and high-school students (roughly aged 11-18) in the U.S. With the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) having recently approved the sale of Vuse, the product might only become more accessible. And BAT’s advertisements on F1 cars may help accelerate upta ..read more

We are all used to the blatant attempts to influence people to buy Big Tobacco’s products—the efforts we can all see: the ads, the billboards, the social media campaigns, the branded kiosks at music festivals and more. Then there are the more covert attempts to potentially exert influence—the ones we can’t easily see. One example is what is known as the revolving door, where tobacco industry and government employees shuffle interchangeably out of one sector and into the other. Tobacco companies’ overt attempts to promote their products may be easier to spot, but the covert tactics may be just ..read more

Statement from STOP, a Global Tobacco Industry Watchdog (New York, October 13, 2021) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday confirmed that it has authorized e-cigarette product Vuse from RJ Reynolds, a subsidiary of one of the world’s largest cigarette companies, British American Tobacco (BAT). While the FDA denied RJ Reynolds authorization for certain flavored products, STOP is concerned that the FDA appears willing to make a trade-off between attempts to support some smokers and protecting youth. Any possible benefits to public health from e-cigarettes can only be realized if ..read more