Progress in reducing tobacco use is a key indicator for measuring countries’ efforts to implement the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control – target 3.a under the Sustainable Development Goals agenda. Countries have adopted this indicator to report progress also towards the tobacco reduction target under the Global Action Plan …
the biggest challenge to environmental and public health regulation is the burden of proof. It always rests with those arguing on the side of common good. The industrial system is driven entirely by the market, not by public good
Even as the us government's us$280 billion lawsuit against the cigarette industry takes its course, tobacco major Philip Morris is mired in a fresh controversy. A www.thelancet.com article charges the company with concealing information on tobacco research. It says the company covertly acquired a research facility in Germany in the …
smokescreen: As per a study by UK-based London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Philip Morris, the world's leading tobacco manufacturer, studied the effects of smoking 30 years ago, but it did not reveal the dangers of passive smoking. powered at last: The first wind power plant of the Arabian …
Turn of fate: Oyster fishers of Louisiana, us, received a major setback when the Louisiana Supreme Court rejected their us $1.3 billion claim of loss of livelihood due to a coastal restoration project. A total of 130 oyster fishers had leased water bottoms in Breton Sound. They sued the state …
The biggest tobacco trial till date began in the us on September 21, 2004, in which the government has filed a us $280 billion civil suit against tobacco giants, charging them with concealing, for decades, the harmful effects of smoking and for illegally marketing cigarettes to children. Apart from recovering …
State governments do not have the power to ban gutka (a preparation of chewing tobacco). So says none other than the Supreme Court of India. The ruling, which came on August 2, 2004, was in response to a writ petition filed by five manufacturers against the ban of their product …
sole authority: The Madras High Court (HC) has vested the Tamil Nadu government with the exclusive right to carry out sand quarrying activities. In doing so, the HC has upheld a government order (GO) dated October 1, 2003. But the private parties that have not violated environmental laws or breached …
Highlighting the flipside of liberalisation, experts have called for excluding tobacco from free trade agreements to protect health. Their appeal comes at a time when the eu and the South American trading bloc, Mercosur, are negotiating such a pact. Both the parties have been urged to set a precedent by …
safety mechanism: The International Maritime Organisation (IMO), the world's apex body responsible for the safety and security of shipping, has adopted the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments to prevent the spread of invasive aquatic organisms. The decision was taken during a meeting …
up to 68 per cent of adolescents in India use dental products containing tobacco, despite the 1992 amendment to India’s Drugs and Cosmetics Act barring the use of tobacco in tooth-care products. This is the finding of a survey conducted by D N Sinha of Patna-based School of Preventive Oncology, …
Mild cigarettes are drawing strong reactions in the European Union (eu). In tune with its campaign against smoking, the eu has ordered manufacturers not to brand their products as "mild' or "light'. It is felt that such tags lead consumers to believe that the cigarettes are less harmful. The implication …
easy rabies cure: Tobacco plants have been genetically modified to produce proteins used to combat the rabies virus. Till now, the only way to fight the virus was to use antibodies derived from either horses or humans; but they are difficult to get. Researchers from the Thomas Jefferson University, USA, …
farmers from developing countries may no longer be forced to buy expensive seeds of genetically modified (gm) plants. A new variety of gm plant will produce fertile seeds that carry desirable traits, but are incapable of spreading engineered genes into the environment. Environmentalists have long warned about the dangers of …
Upset over the issue of the plummeting prices of tobacco at state auctions, Andhra Pradesh chief minister (CM) Chandrababu Naidu severely reprimanded members of the industry. He even threatened to burn all the stocks of tobacco if the traders did not mend their ways. The CM was addressing a high-level …
• Bollywood has declared war on tobacco. At a roof-top conference in Mumbai's Taj Mahal Hotel to mark World No Smoking Day on 31 May, glamorous celebrities from tinseltown and the ad world got together to discuss their roles in controlling the use of tobacco among fans and followers. • …
The World Heath Assembly adopted the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) at its 56th session in Geneva on May 21, 2003. The member countries affirmed that they would adopt and ratify the tobacco treaty at the earliest. FCTC can come into force only after 40 countries ratify it. Despite …
• The river linking panel headed by Suresh Prabhu recently formed a "communication core group for mass awareness' for the purpose of monitoring news and to convey the benefits of the massive enterprise to the layperson. • Despite strict laws banning sex determination tests, including pre-conception technologies, some unscrupulous doctors …
sidestepping health concerns, the us government has asked other nations to support the reopening of negotiations on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (fctc). The treaty aims to curb tobacco menace. The draft prepared in March 2003, is likely to be finalised soon at the World Health Assembly in Geneva. …
