Welcome to Plastic-Free July. As the northern hemisphere heads to the beach or the mountains for well-deserved R&R, Plastic-Free July is a reminder that the plastic pollution crisis is only getting worse and we have it in our power to make small decisions that, multiplied by many millions, can have a positive impact on mitigating this looming disaster and raising awareness. There is a false impression that refusing straws and packing reuseable shopping bags will fix the plastic problem. It won’t. The solution must come upstream at the manufacturing level, and that requires the political w ..read more

June 5th is World Environment Day. One might well ask – “Why is ASH marking this day? It’s an anti-tobacco group?” The number one source of global pollution – and the number one source of plastic pollution – is cigarette filters. Getting rid of them would go a long way to solving some of our most difficult environmental challenges. And – this is the important bit for ASH – banning filters would lead millions of people who smoke to quit, and drastically reduce the tobacco industry’s ability to addict “replacements” for the eight million customers who die each year from using their products. Fi ..read more

Yellowing teeth. Wrinkling skin. A dry as hell cough. We’ve all seen the ads showing the dangers of smoking cigarettes. In middle school, our teachers would pass out red ribbons and “D.A.R.E.” us to be drug free. “Just Say NO” still lingers in my brain all of these years later. We’ve also seen at least one person close to us that has smoked a cigarette, had one too many shots of alcohol, or used some other form of substance to cope with the stresses of daily life. With the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) declaring youth vaping an “epidemic” in 2018, it is clear that the scare tactics didn’t ..read more

Media Contact:Kelsey Romeo-Stuppy (202) 659 – 4310 Tobacco Companies Violate Children’s Human Rights New Report Released from ASH, Unfairtobacco to Highlight the Rights Being Violated and How to Act in honor of World No Tobacco Day 2024 WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 21, 2024 – Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and their partners at Unfairtobacco released a joint report in advance of World No Tobacco Day on May 31st. The report, Protecting Children from the Tobacco Industry, highlights the myriad ways the tobacco industry harms children around the world and how advocates can use global human right ..read more

The Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMRO) is silently struggling in the battle against the tobacco epidemic that’s plaguing the World Health Organization region. Driven by a high rate of tobacco use, particularly among young people, smoking in EMRO is expected to increase by 2025, which is contrary to the trend in other WHO regions. Notably, 42% of boys and 31% of girls in the region smoke, with hookah being more popular than cigarettes.[i] A significant contributing factor to this epidemic is the long-standing affordability of tobacco products within EMRO, with cigarettes’ minimum price being l ..read more

ASH joins the Stop Tobacco Pollution Alliance in attending the fourth Intergovernmental Negotiating Conference (INC-4) of the United Nations Treaty to End Plastic Pollution in Ottawa, Canada from April 23 – 29, 2024. ASH’s Chief Operating Officer Liz Furgurson and Policy Director Chris Bostic will share updates and progress here for our community to stay engaged and informed. April 30, 2024 – The fourth meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) for a treaty to end plastic pollution was relatively grueling. Eight days (Weekend? What weekend?) with informal meetings for the ..read more

April 18- 19, 2024, ASH hosted the first National Tobacco Endgame Summit in Washington, DC. It was the culmination of over a year of planning and comes at an opportune and exciting time as endgame policies are being implemented worldwide, with three Massachusetts towns joining Brookline in implementing Nicotine-Free Generation (NFG) policies and the recent passage of a similar law in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The Summit served as a transition point in the history of tobacco policies in the United States. The concept of ending the tobacco epidemic rather than mitigating it, of going ..read more

Media Contact:Megan Manning (202) 390 – 9513  Tobacco Industry Expands Lobbying Efforts in the U.S. in 2024 New Compiled Data Released in ASH’s U.S. Tobacco Industry Lobbyist and Lobbying Firm Registration Tracker WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 2, 2024 – Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) released the 3rd edition of the U.S. Tobacco Industry Lobbyist and Lobbying Firm Registration Tracker for the current cycle. The ASH Lobbyist Tracker is the first source to compile and standardize tobacco industry lobbying in the United States. The tracker compiles public records from the varying registration and ..read more

Media Contact:Megan Manning (202) 390 – 9513 UN Plastics Treaty Negotiations Move Forward with Strong Support for Banning Cigarette Filters WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 30, 2024 – The Fourth Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-4) to develop an international legally binding treaty on ending plastic pollution, adjourned April 29, 2024, in Ottawa, Canada after a week of slow but meaningful progress. ASH and its Stop Tobacco Pollution Alliance (STPA) allies were pleased with the support of government delegations for a ban on cigarette filters, the largest source of global plastic pollution. Neg ..read more

ASH joins the Stop Tobacco Pollution Alliance in attending the fourth Intergovernmental Negotiating Conference (INC-4) of the United Nations Treaty to End Plastic Pollution in Ottawa, Canada from April 23 – 29, 2024. ASH’s Chief Operating Officer Liz Furgurson and Policy Director Chris Bostic will share updates and progress here for our community to stay engaged and informed. April 28, 2024 – INC4 returned to full plenary for the first time in several days in order to discuss the possibility of intercessional work. Given the state of the draft text, it seems impossible to finish at INC5 in t ..read more