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 …
Multinational toba-cco companies faced with shrinking markets and increasing restrictions in the industrialised world, are wooing consumers throughout the newly-opened econo-mies of Loas, Cam-bodia, Burma and Vietnam. Using slick advertising and dollar power, the companies are promoting an image of cigarette-makers that is synonymous with entrepreneurship, individual freedom and unlimited …
The Orissa High Court has settled the three-month-old controversy over the sale of Kendu leaf in favour of the state-owned Orissa Forest Development Corporation (OFDC). The Court dismissed the petition filed by the Federation of Bidi, Bidi Leaf & Tobacco Merchants that has challenged the invitation of bids by OFDC …
Low-tar, filter-tipped cigarettes have only increased the incidence of adenocarcinomas, a cancer occurring deep inside the lungs. According to the American Cancer Society, only non-filtered cigarettes were linked to lung cancers so far. But data on the disease reveal that adenocarcinomas, never linked to smoking earlier, was rising in those …
a ban on tobacco advertising in the European Union ( eu) is on the anvil. The Netherlands, which holds the crucial swing vote, is likely to vote for a ban on tobacco advertising. The Dutch move is at odds with the uk government which wants to back tobacco advertising curbs …
britain's governing Labour party's abrupt volte-face on November 5 on the plan to ban Formula One racing sponsorship by tobacco companies has become as a major embarrassment. This was one of the electoral promises of the party before the general elections in May, which it won by a landslide. Recently, …
while environmentalists worry about Brazilian rainforests, thousands of acres of lush forests are being cleared away in southern Brazil to make way for tobacco cultivation and production. Brazil is the world's largest exporter of tobacco, with exports touching 282,500 tonnes in 1996, and the world's fourth largest producer after China, …
Despite signing deals with Florida for US $11.3 billion and Mississippi for US $3.4 billion, tobacco companies in the US said that they would fight the US $14 billion lawsuit in the state of Texas. They said that they would cut no more deals by paying individual states for the …
Habitual tobacco usage and betel quid chewing have led to a mindboggling increase in oral cancer cases in Nepal. Manik R Bajracharya, chairperson of Nepal Oral Health Society, Kathmandu, says that like other developing countries, dental caries and periodontal disease constitute a major oral health problem in Nepal because of …
Recent findings have confirmed that the addition of ammonia to tobacco increases the ability of nicotine to enter a smoker's bloodstream. This increases the addictive effect of cigarettes. The research was conducted by James Pankow of the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology, USA. Nicotine in tobacco is mostly …
a settlement in Florida has pressed panic buttons for the tobacco industry worldover. Setting a precedent, the government of Florida signed a us $11.3 billion settlement with us cigarette manufacturers to recover costs of medical treatment for curing ailments caused due to smoking. The cigarette companies, apart from promising to …
We take life for granted because that is all we see around us, till death steps in to remind us how easy it is to take life away. The tobacco industry is not dying, but those who smoke are. Slowly but surely they are killing themselves to fill the coffers …
A federal court in North Carolina, US, recently passed a landmark judgement related to smoking when it ruled that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can regulate sales and labelling on cigarettes. The court, however, said that FDA cannot control the promotion and advertising of tobacco products. The ruling would …
after three decades of painstaking research, a team of American researchers has at last been able to establish a direct link between smoking and lung cancer. Mikhail F Denissenko, Annie Pao, Moon-shong Tang and Gerd P Pfeifer have reported in Science (Vol 274, No 5286) the first direct evidence showing …
A NEW anti-tobacco strategy by the Canadian government involves a series of tough measures. Hiking tobacco taxes, extending a surtax on tobacco manufacturers' profits and banning tobacco advertisement on television, radio and billboards are some of the measures to counter tobacco use. In the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick …
Even as cigarette companies are facing strict regulations, other tobacco products seem to have a free run. The Rajasthan High Court recently issued show cause notices to the central government, the state government and three others to explain the reason for not issuing the statutory health hazard warning on packets …
The American tobacco industry has hit back with a vengeance. Following President Clinton's announcement of wide ranging restrictions on cigarette advertising (Down To Earth, Vol 5, No 8), the industry has vowed to take the battle to the courts. And what is more, the White House has been forced to …
US tobacco companies are gearing up to fight a ruling which awarded US $750,000 in damages to a lung cancer patient Grady Carter who smoked for more than 40 years. A six-member jury in Jacksonville, Florida recently passed the verdict against American Tobacco whose cigarettes were smoked by Carter. Until …
A presidential announcement has probably dealt the American tobacco industry its biggest blow till date: in a declaration aimed at providing some long-term relief to the millions reeling from tobacco-induced health disorders, Bill Clinton drastically curtailed tobacco companies' rights to advertise their products. This follows a recent FDA proclamation that …
Tobacco companies in the UK got a temporary reprieve when the Legal Aid Board, which grants public funds to needy litigants, refused to fund a case filed by smokers seeking billions of dollars in damages. Unless private money can be found to fund the case, 300 people suffering from lung …
