Kashish Aneja and Sanjana Gopal In 2010, Bhutan was lauded globally for being the first country to ban tobacco sales and smoking in public places. The ban lasted for over a decade until the circumstances posed by the COVID-19 pandemic compelled policy makers to change course, legalising the sale of tobacco within the country. In 1989, local government leaders in Bumthang, the religious heartland of Bhutan, endorsed a ban on tobacco sales in the district. Discussion in the 70th National Assembly Session highlighted that smoking was considered reprehensible regardless of whether it was viewed fr ..read more

Les Hagen and Daniel Dorado Tobacco giant Philip Morris (PMI) was recently removed from Canada’s Medicago Inc vaccine collaboration following a determined two-year global advocacy campaign led by ASH Canada and Corporate Accountability (CAI). This development represents an enormous win for global public health, ensuring that the control of one pandemic doesn’t compromise that of another. The news of the expulsion was conspicuously leaked out through a Quebec French-language newspaper on Christmas Eve, likely in an effort to suppress news coverage of the decision. Anticipating this possibility ..read more

Rachel Maynard and Raouf Alebshehy  A recent investigation carried out by global tobacco industry watchdog, STOP, has resulted in over 20 additional organisations being added to its Tobacco Industry Allies database. The database is an important resource to help researchers, advocates and policymakers identify third-party organisations that may be acting to promote the industry’s business interests or narrative, often without making public their links with tobacco companies. Launched in 2019, it now includes more than 130 groups across 33 countries. The organisations identified include ret ..read more

Michelle Scollo and Sarah Durkin Australia was one of the first countries in the world to introduce large-scale Quit smoking public education campaigns and to introduce tobacco package health warnings. It was one of the first countries to end the advertising of tobacco products in print media, in cinemas and outdoors. It was the first country in the world to use taxes on tobacco products not just to make tobacco products less affordable but also to replace tobacco sponsorship contracts with sporting and arts organisations. And Australia was the first government in the world (ten years ago last ..read more

Leslie Rae-Ferat and Jason Chapman On November 1, 2022 the Framework Convention Alliance (FCA) officially rebranded as the Global Alliance for Tobacco Control (GATC). The Framework Convention Alliance was originally created in 1999 and was later more formally established in 2003. Today, the Alliance is the only global network dedicated solely to implementing the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) and serves as the leading voice of civil society in strengthening and accelerating progress. Since its inception, the Alliance has worked diligently alo ..read more

Debby Sy and Laurent Huber In March 2022, the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) mandated the negotiations of a global plastics treaty which is expected to include Single Use Plastics (SUPs), under which cigarette butts have been categorized. The UNEA Resolution encourages broad multi-stakeholder involvement including the private sector. There is no indication that the tobacco industry is excluded from being a stakeholder in the plastics treaty development process, although such a policy would ensure coherence with existing global tobacco control treaty obligations (WHO Framework Conve ..read more

Sheila Duffy The Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) is a political party which was just one seat short of a majority in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election. The SNP currently runs the administration of the Scottish Government in a cooperation agreement with the Scottish Green Party. ASH Scotland became aware of a proposed fringe event organised at the 2022 SNP party conference on Saturday 8th October which was co-sponsored by JTI (Japan Tobacco International) and Dods, the parent company of Holyrood Communications. The proposed Dods/JTI event featured a panel of speakers from the Institute of ..read more

  Margaretha Haglund, Maggan (1948–2022)    The International Network of Women Against Tobacco (INWAT) announced on Wednesday 7th September that life-long tobacco control advocate Margaretha Haglund, or Maggan, as she was known, passed away on Saturday, 3 September.   Maggan was a long-term pioneer in tobacco control, working in the field for nearly 50 years – a record which is hard to beat. She worked in Sweden at the National Board of Health and Welfare, the Public Health Institute and most recently at Tobaksfakta, the Swedish tobacco control advocacy group.   ..read more

Laurent Huber, Raquel Fernández Megina, Esteve Fernández, Cristina Martinez Martinez In June 2022, the Spanish Ministry of Finance announced  that 203 new tobacco retail licenses were to be added to the 13,000 already operating in Spain. Of these new tobacconists, 30 will be concentrated along the French-Spanish border, dramatically increasing the concentration along the French border, with 50 tobacconists per 10,000 inhabitants – seven times higher than the current frequency (approximately 3.4 per 10,000 inhabitants) in the rest of Spain. Furthermore, these new licenses would allow ..read more

An investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) has revealed that Detroit Pastor Rev. Horace Sheffield, a prominent Black civil rights activist, was offered as much as $250,000 to speak out against the proposed federal  menthol ban in the United States (U.S.). Back in May 2022, Rev. Sheffield had written an editorial in support of the Food and Drug Administration’s menthol ban, stating that it would “stem the tide of preventable disease and death.” Soon afterwards, the pastor was approached by an individual who claimed to be representing R J Reynolds tobacco company. The ..read more