Features

Congratulations to several governments in Africa for moving forward with life-saving tobacco control policies. New policies are near passage or being implemented in Cameroon, Chad, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Mauritius, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa.

Today, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare unveiled a new four-minute video, called The Price We Pay, to highlight the economic and health impacts of tobacco use. The film explains how tobacco ruins livelihoods and lives.

Today marks the launch of a new national campaign to warn people about the harms of second-hand smoke and to promote smoke-free public spaces across Bangladesh. The campaign, called Smoke, was developed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW).

We welcome the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) proposed regulations to the e-cigarette industry, which include sales restrictions and labeling requirements of products that deliver vaporized nicotine, although the regulations falls short of expectations. The multibillion dollar e-cigarette industry has been expanding rapidly without oversight and amidst growing concerns about the health and safety of the products.

A new report from the CDC, highlights a dramatic increase in poisonings related to e-cigarettes. The study adds to a growing body of evidence underlining the urgent need for regulation of e-cigarettes and related products by the U.S. FDA and the need for the marketing, sale and use of e-cigarettes to be subject to the same restrictions as traditional cigarettes.

The UK Government is urged to introduce plain packaging for tobacco products without further delay. The Government had been awaiting the findings of the Chantler Review into the potential effectiveness of plain packaging before making a decision on the matter and today said that it intends to present details of potential legislation in the near future.

A perfect storm of factors has led to the rapid spread of Multi-Drug Resistant-Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and a major effort is needed to combat the increasing toll of the disease. MDR-TB threatens to undo decades of progress and brings new urgency to invest in healthcare systems, medicines and vaccines.

Health Ministry Representatives from Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda today joined a regional workshop to improve warnings on cigarette packs and anti-tobacco public education campaigns. The Centre for Tobacco Control in Africa (CTCA) and partners are hosting the four-day event that also includes representatives from WHO and NGOs from participating countries.

the Ministry of Health(MoH) and the Youth Union of Vietnam launched two new campaigns to help reduce tobacco use in Vietnam. A national mass media campaign, about the serious harms caused by smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke, features the new graphic warnings on cigarette packs and promotes compliance with new national smoke-free regulations.

Today marks the launch of the first-ever national mass media campaign to warn people of The Gambia about tobacco’s harms. Developed by the Non Communicable Disease Control Programme, Ministry of Health & Social Welfare, the campaign graphically depicts tobacco’s impact on smokers and non-smokers exposed to tobacco smoke.