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World No Tobacco Day

Celebs join no-tobacco event with 2,000 youths in Ho Chi Minh City

May 29th, 2016
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http://tuoitrenews.vn/society/35073/celebs-join-notobacco-event-with-2000-youths-in-ho-chi-minh-city

A number of Vietnamese celebrities took part Saturday in an event in Ho Chi Minh City, calling people to say no to tobacco.

The event, taking place at the Youth Cultural House in District 1, was aimed to celebrate the World No Tobacco Day (May 31) and the National Anti-Tobacco Week.

The ceremony attracted nearly 2,000 youths, hailing from citywide universities and colleges, besides such public figures as film directors Le Hoang and Dinh Anh Dung, actress Lan Phuong, and local singers Duc Tuan, Van Mai Huong, Noo Phuoc Thinh and Quoc Thien.

The celebs treated the young audience to various performances, then joined them in discussions meant to encourage abstinence from all forms of tobacco consumption.

Singer Duc Tuan sent his message through a song named “Moi ngay toi chon mot niem vui,” which means “every day I choose a joy.”

“We can choose a meaningful thing to do when a new day arrives, but please never choose tobacco,” he told the audience.

When she was on stage, actress Lan Phuong was asked to comment on a common conception that smoking makes men look manly and stylistic.

“Manliness and maturity of a man are expressed via his behavior and manner, not the tobacco,” she replied.

The actress also hoped that a law that ban smoking in eateries, bars, coffee shops, and other public places, even in film studios, will soon be imposed.

The event wrapped up with a flash mob performed by many young people, followed by bicycle parade to encourage people to give up smoking.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control are calling on all countries to get ready for plain packaging of tobacco products.

Plain packaging is an important demand reduction measure that reduces the attractiveness of tobacco products, restricts use of tobacco packaging as a form of tobacco advertising and promotion, limits misleading packaging and labeling, and increases the effectiveness of health warnings, WHO said on its website.

For the World Tobacco Day 2016, the Vietnamese Ministry of Health has also launched a campaign called “Life without smoke.”

Thailand to mark World No Tobacco Day on May 31

May 29th, 2016
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BANGKOK, 28 May 2016 (NNT) – World No Tobacco Day which falls on May 31st will be celebrated in Thailand as the Ministry of Public Health is preparing for the upcoming event.

http://news.thaivisa.com/thailand/thailand-to-mark-world-no-tobacco-day-on-may-31/143663/

Dr. Amnuay Gajeena, the Director-General of the Disease Control Department under the supervision of the Ministry of Public Health, said World No Tobacco Day celebrations will be held at Future Park Rangsit.

It’s hoped the event will raise awareness of the dangers of smoking, among Thai youth. According to a survey conducted in 2014, more than 353,000 youngsters aged between 15 and 18 smoke cigarettes, while the number of smokers between 19 and 24 years of age is as many as a million people. The shocking statistics also suggest that up to 70 percent of Thai youths smoke cigarettes, while Thailand sees around 200,000 – 250,000 new smokers take up the dangerous habit, on a yearly basis.

He said the ministry will push for a law that forbids manufacturers from putting logos on cigarette packs. The move is intended to discourage people from smoking.

World No Tobacco Day 2016: WHO urges for plain packaging of tobacco products

May 29th, 2016
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http://www.merinews.com/article/world-no-tobacco-day-2016-who-urges-for-plain-packaging-of-tobacco-products/15916623.shtml

According to the World Health Organization, for this year’s World No Tobacco Day on May 31, various countries have been called upon ‘to get ready for plain (standardized) packaging’ of tobacco products.

“Plain packaging refers to “measures to restrict or prohibit the use of logos, colours, brand images or promotional information on packaging other than brand names and product names displayed in a standard colour and font style,” stated WHO.

It added that the plain packaging was an important demand reduction measure since it ‘reduces the attractiveness of tobacco products, restricts use of tobacco packaging as a form of tobacco advertising and promotion, limits misleading packaging and labelling, and increases the effectiveness of health warning’.

Every year, WHO recognizes individuals or organizations in each of the six WHO Regions for their accomplishments in the area of tobacco control. This recognition takes the form of WHO Director-General Special Recognition Awards, World No Tobacco Day Awards, and in 2016, two WHO Director-General’s Special Recognition Certificates.

The recipients of this year’s most noteworthy awards called ‘WHO Director-General Special Awards’ are Marisol Touraine, Minister of Social Affairs and Health, France; and Jane Ellison MP, Member of Parliament for Battersea, and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Public Health, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, stated the WHO on its website.

GET READY FOR PLAIN PACKAGING

May 28th, 2016
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plain-packaging-graphic

May 31st 2016 World No Tobacco Day Tobacco packaging is a mobile billboard promoting consumption of tobacco products. Tobacco packaging makes products more attractive, advertises and promotes tobacco consumption, distracts from health warnings and deceives people into thinking that some products are less harmful than others.

If you strip back the decoration, gloss and misleading elements of tobacco packaging, you are left with little more than a box of deadly and addictive products that kills approximately 6 million people a year and harms the health of many more. Plain packaging helps reveal the grim reality of tobacco products.

What is plain packaging?

Plain packaging (also called standardized packaging) refers to “measures to restrict or prohibit the use of logos, colours, brand images or promotional information on packaging other than brand names and product names displayed in a standard colour and font style (plain packaging)”.1

Plain packaging has also been described as packaging that is “black and white or two other contrasting colours, as prescribed by national authorities; nothing other than a brand name, a product name and/or manufacturer’s name, contact details and the quantity of product in the packaging, without any logos or other features apart from health warnings, tax stamps and other government-mandated information or markings; prescribed font style and size; and standardized shape, size and materials. There should be no advertising or promotion inside or attached to the package or on individual cigarettes or other tobacco products.”2

Guidelines for Implementation of Article 11 (Packaging and labelling of tobacco products) and Article 13 (Tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship) of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) recommend that Parties consider adoption of plain packaging.

Goals of plain packaging

The goals of plain packaging include:
1. reducing the attractiveness of tobacco products;
2. eliminating the effects of tobacco packaging as a form of advertising and promotion;
3. addressing package design techniques that may suggest that some products are less harmful than others; and
4. increasing the noticeability and effectiveness of health warnings.

As the WHO FCTC recognizes, tobacco control relies upon implementation of comprehensive multisectoral measures that work together in a complementary way. In this respect, plain packaging is a demand reduction measure that builds on other measures designed to reduce demand for tobacco products, such as mandatory health warnings and comprehensive prohibitions on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.

Status of implementation

In December 2012, Australia became the first country to implement fully tobacco plain packaging. It is now possible to observe the globalization of plain packaging. France, Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland have all passed laws requiring implementation of plain packaging from May 2016. Other countries are at an advanced stage of the policy process.

Evidence justifying plain packaging

A large body of evidence justifies the introduction of plain packaging.

Experimental studies, surveys and focus group studies conclude that plain packaging achieves its objectives. These conclusions are supported by three separate systematic reviews of the evidence conducted since adoption of the guidelines to Articles 11 and 13 of the WHO FCTC.

Early evidence of Australia’s experience implementing plain packaging suggests that the measure has begun to achieve its public health objectives. The evidence shows that plain packaging in Australia is reducing the appeal of tobacco products, increasing the effectiveness of health warnings and reducing the ability of the pack to mislead. An expert analysis conducted as part of Australia’s review found that introduction of plain packaging together with introduction of larger health warnings and new warnings had reduced smoking prevalence in Australia beyond the pre-existing downward trend.

Specifically, the report estimated that between December 2012 and September

2015 “the 2012 packaging changes reduced average smoking prevalence among Australians aged 14 years and over by 0.55 percentage points”.3 According to the model, average smoking prevalence in the post-implementation period would have been 17.77% rather than 17.21% with the changes to packaging. This effect on smoking prevalence is expected to grow over time.

What should be done?

• Policy makers should consider adopting legislation or regulations to implement plain packaging of tobacco products as part of comprehensive, multisectoral approaches to tobacco control.
• This process should include establishing a formal plan and timeline for implementation of plain packaging, in line with each Member State’s tobacco control programme and priorities.
• In some cases, to prepare for plain packaging, policy makers may:
– strengthen health warnings;
– strengthen bans on misleading packaging and labelling;
– ensure that bans on advertising, promotion and sponsorship are comprehensive; and
– ensure that each of these measures is well enforced.
• Policy makers should resist interference in the policy process by the tobacco industry in line with Article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC and its guidelines for implementation.

Resisting interference from the tobacco industry

Countries can expect substantial tobacco industry opposition to plain packaging, including tobacco companies bringing claims against plain packaging before the courts.

Australia, for example, successfully defended a claim before its domestic courts and a claim under a bilateral investment treaty, but is still defending claims under the law of the World Trade Organization.

Such industry opposition demands a careful policy design process, but countries should rest assured that the evidence base justifies introduction of plain packaging as part of a comprehensive approach to tobacco control.

Further information

For more detailed information about designing and implementing plain packaging laws see www.who.int/tobacco.

World No Tobacco Day communications actions

May 28th, 2016
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A growing gulf in the terrain of tobacco control

May 28th, 2016
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http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2816%2930658-4/fulltext

The theme for World No Tobacco Day on May 31, an annual initiative of WHO and the Secretariat of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), is plain packaging of tobacco products. Plain packaging prohibits the use of logos, colours, and promotional labelling on cigarettes and hand-rolled tobacco and gives graphic health warnings more prominence. In the FCTC, the legally binding international treaty to curb tobacco use signed by 180 nations, a ban on branded cigarette packaging is considered a key demand reduction strategy.

On May 31, WHO calls on countries to “get ready” for plain packaging, following the example of Australia, which introduced plain packs in 2012 and has since seen declines in smoking. France, Ireland, and the UK will imminently require plain packaging, and Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa, and other European countries are considering tougher packaging laws for tobacco.

Plain packaging is a big step forward on the journey to reducing tobacco use and its associated health risks. But it has not been an easy road. The Government of Australia spent AUS$50 million fighting a court battle against tobacco giant Philip Morris, which argued that plain packs threatened the company’s intellectual property. The French subsidiary of Imperial Tobacco is planning a similar lawsuit. Last month, however, the European Court of Justice said the new EU law on plain packaging and a forthcoming ban on menthol cigarettes were legal. And on May 19, a high court in London ruled against four major tobacco companies who argued the plain packaging move violated UK and European law.

These recent victories against Big Tobacco are another triumph for public health. However, they also put into stark focus the massive gap between countries in delivering tobacco control.

For the bulk of the world’s lower income countries, implementation of agreed commitments in the FCTC has been staggeringly slow and may be at risk of stalling. The least compliant countries are often the ones with the highest rates of tobacco use, which compounds growing disease and cost burdens of tobacco. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), for example, released a report last week revealing uneven headway across the Americas. Just 17 of the region’s 35 member countries have smoke-free public spaces and workplaces, and only five have banned tobacco advertising and sponsorship. Only 16 countries mandate full graphic health warnings. Tobacco taxation is the most effective cessation and prevention strategy, but only one American nation has implemented the treaty’s agreed measure. Although 12 countries have some form of tobacco tax, only Chile levies taxes greater than 75% of the retail sale price of cigarettes. The USA has yet to even ratify the FCTC.

Progress in Africa and Asia, both key markets for tobacco companies where epidemics may be worsening, is similarly poor, as a series in The Lancet last year documented.

Smoking remains the number one cause of preventable disease and early death. It is the single common risk factor for the priority non-communicable diseases whose burdens are exploding in the very countries where tobacco use runs largely unabated. Without fuller implementation of the FCTC, no country will reach the global target of a 30% reduction in the prevalence of tobacco use by 2025, nor contribute substantially to the one-third reduction in premature deaths from non-communicable diseases targeted in the Sustainable Development Goals.

The basic ingredients of the framework convention—advertising bans, smoke-free spaces, graphic warnings, and taxation—are effective and cost little. So lack of implementation is not a matter of financial resources, it is political. Overcoming the inability to galvanise political will to fight for tobacco control should be the real focus of World No Tobacco Day.

Although we are encouraged by and celebrate the progress several countries have made to limit tobacco’s appeal through the use of plain packaging, the global community must remain vigilant to ensure a robust and even implementation of strategy across all countries. The FCTC is supposed to equip countries with policies and practices to fight against tobacco. We renew our call for a high-level UN summit on tobacco control, with stronger accountability mechanisms to bridge the gap between countries on-track and off-track for a tobacco-free world.

FDA seizes Rs 124-crore worth cigarette packs for flouting pictorial warning norms

May 28th, 2016
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Manufacturers to be issued warnings to cover 85% of packet surface with visuals on adverse health effects.

http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/regional/fda-cigarette-packs-flouting-pictorial-warning-2822567/

According to the Food and Drug Administration, cigarette packets and other tobacco products, which should display pictorial warnings on 85 per cent of the packet surface about the adverse health effects as per the new law, are clearly flouting the rules in Pune district.

The FDA team conducted a massive operation beginning April this year and seized cigarette packets worth a whopping Rs 124.53 crore from 14 places across Pune district.

Joint Commissioner (FDA) Shashikant Kekare told The Indian Express that they have seized the packets worth Rs 124.53 crore from April till date. “We have decided to re-send the packets to the manufacturing companies, mainly ITC and Godfrey Phillips, and issue a warning to them to cover 85 per cent of the packet surface with large visual warnings within two months,” said Assistant Commissioner FDA Dilip Sangat.

In Pune district in the last four years, the FDA has also collected fines amounting to Rs 50,000 from 350 people, who were found smoking at public places and Rs 11,400 from 77 people who were found selling tobacco and related products within 100 metre distance of schools. The gutkha collected, however, has been phenomenal and packets worth Rs 8.68 crore have been seized from 638 places in the district.

As per the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Amendment Rules, 2014, the size of the pictorial warning was increased and were to come into effect from 2015 onwards. However, the Centre had on April 1, 2016 brought in the 85% pictorial warning rule. The Supreme Court too directed the tobacco manufacturing companies to comply with the rules to display the pictorial warnings across 85% of the surface of packets of cigarettes.

This year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has stressed upon plain packaging of cigarettes and tobacco products on No Tobacco Day (May 31).

PACE team to reach out to more students, train medical interns

About one million people die each year from tobacco-related diseases. By 2020, that number is expected to touch 1.5 million, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). May 31 is observed as No Tobacco Day to spread awareness on the harmful effects of tobacco consumption. The Association of Hospital (AOH) urges people to control and gradually reduce tobacco usage.

In Pune, the team of doctors at the Prevention of Addiction through Children’s Education (PACE) has actively reached out to more than one lakh students in the city and Mumbai. Dr Vandana Joshi, ENT surgeon, who heads PACE and is supported by a team of activists including Dr Neeta Ghate, Anuya Chabukswar and others, have now decided to focus on private schools this year. “We also want to train students of medical and dental courses so that they can take up the campaign to prevent gutka and smoking,” Joshi said.

Pictorial warnings welcome, but poor implementation: Docs

Cancer surgeons have welcomed the move to display pictorial warnings on cigarette packs but say it is poorly implemented. Dr Kamalesh Bokil, who is flooded with oral cancer patients at Ruby Hall Clinic, said the visual warnings really work.

“We need to sustain this movement. No firm can sell tobacco without displaying 85 per cent warning visuals on packs,” said Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, head and neck cancer surgeon from Tata Memorial Hospital.

WHO calls on countries to get ready for plain cigarette packaging

May 27th, 2016
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Generic, drab cigarette packages may soon be on Canadian shelves

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/plain-packaging-for-cigarettes-lancet-editorial-1.3601776

Following Australia’s example, the World Health Organization is calling on other countries to “get ready” for plain packaging of cigarettes.

In an editorial published in the medical journal The Lancet, the WHO says plain packaging is a big step forward in reducing tobacco use and its related health risks.

Australia was the first country to adopt legislation for plain packaging in 2012. Just last week, the U.K. and France implemented their own legislation. Ireland will soon be next, and several other countries are considering a move to the generic packs.

A tougher packaging law was part of the Canadian government’s election platform. According to the Canadian Cancer Society, the prime minister’s mandate letter to Health Minister Jane Philpott said plain packaging should be a top priority.

Ban on branding

“It’s not rocket science,” says David Hammond. He’s an associate professor at the University of Waterloo, and part of his research focuses on interventions such as labelling and packaging to reduce chronic illness.

“The brands, the logos, they’re there to appeal to young people,” he says. Take the Marlboro man, for instance, the rugged horseman once commonly seen in tobacco ad campaigns. “That’s one of the most valuable brands and images in the world,” says Hammond. “People associate those images with positive images of smoking, whether that’s being sexy or masculine.”

Plain cigarette packaging like the type already used in Australia has a standard size. No more tall narrow packs like the “superslims” and “lipstick” packs, which target young females. The package is a neutral colour, “sort of drab, olive brown,” with plain type fonts, says Hammond.

It prevents packages from serving as “mini-billboards that promote tobacco,” according to a news release from the Canadian Cancer Society. But the graphic health warnings and pictures will remain.

“Anything that we can do to prevent people from starting in the first place or encourage people who are smokers to quit by offering them assistance is something,” says Robert Reid, with the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and a researcher in smoking cessation.

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in Canada, where there are more than five million smokers.

“We’ve had bans on advertising for tobacco products. This is really, in many ways, just an extension of that, because the package has become one of the ways tobacco companies do market their brands extensively,” says Reid.

In Australia, the introduction of generic smoking packages has helped reduce smoking, Hammond says. “There’s no indication that there would be any difference in terms of the impact in Canada.”

The theme for this year’s World No Tobacco Day on May 31 is plain packaging of tobacco products. “These recent victories against Big Tobacco are another triumph for public health,” says the editorial in the Lancet.

‘Public relations stunt,’ tobacco rep says

A spokesperson for one tobacco company likened the proposed plain packaging legislation in Canada to nothing more than “a public relations stunt by the federal government mainly orchestrated by a few but loud anti-tobacco lobbyists.”

In an email to CBC News on Friday, Imperial Tobacco Canada’s Jeff Guiler says the company has the right to have its trademarks on their products.

“We will continue to defend ourselves against what we believe be be ineffective and excessive regulation.”

As to whether the tobacco giant will take on the Liberal government on its proposed plain packaging proposal, “we will have to wait and see what the government will introduce before making a final decision.”

The U.K. ruling “will only encourage countries like Canada to move even more quickly,” says Hammond. Canada, like other countries, “have all their ducks in a row, and have indicated their desire to implement plain packaging,” he says.

Secretary-General, in Message for International Observance, Supports Plain Packaging of Tobacco Products to Reduce Demand, Ensure Healthy Lives

May 27th, 2016
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http://www.un.org/press/en/2016/sgsm17794.doc.htm

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message on World No Tobacco Day, observed on 31 May:

Cigarettes and other tobacco products kill almost 6 million people every year. Sustainable Development Goal 3 aims to “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”. As part of that approach, Governments have committed to strengthen the implementation of the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in all countries to reduce the proportion of people who use tobacco.

On World No Tobacco Day 2016, the United Nations is lending its support to one simple measure with proven effectiveness in reducing demand: the plain packaging of tobacco products. As laid out in the United Nations tobacco control treaty, this entails restricting or prohibiting the use of logos, colours, brand images or any promotional information other than brand and product names displayed in a standard colour and font.

Tobacco use is one of the largest causes of preventable non-communicable diseases, including cancers, heart and lung disease. It also diverts valuable household income.

Plain packaging reduces the attractiveness of tobacco products, restricts tobacco advertising and promotion, limits misleading labeling, and increases the effectiveness of health warnings.

On this World No Tobacco Day, I call on Governments around the world to get ready for plain packaging.

Every Monday Should Be World No Tobacco Day

May 27th, 2016
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Johns Hopkins smoking cessation expert explains why

http://www.newswise.com/articles/every-monday-should-be-world-no-tobacco-day

On Tuesday, May 31st, the World Health Organization hopes to spur the nearly one billion smokers worldwide to put down their cigarettes for World No Tobacco Day.

While this annual event generates media attention and is a potential starting point for many quit attempts, without a sustained effort these smokers will likely be puffing away again in a matter of weeks.

Researchers say that one way to keep the momentum going after this once-a-year push to get smokers’ attention, is to use every Monday as a weekly opportunity to support smokers in their efforts to quit and stay quit.

An analysis of Google search patterns published in JAMA Internal Medicine revealed a striking trend: at the beginning of every week, there is a surge in online searches for “quit smoking.” This trend was consistent not only over the four years analyzed, but also across six languages, pointing to Monday as a potential global leverage point for communicating about quitting smoking. In fact, there are approximately eight million more searches per year for “quit smoking” on Mondays compared to other days.

Dr. Joanna Cohen, coauthor of the Google study and director of the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, sees potential in taking advantage of this “open to buy” mindset on Mondays.

“Quitting smoking can be a difficult process,” said Cohen. “The six million tobacco-caused deaths around the world each year are an outright tragedy, particularly because each of these deaths is completely preventable. Far too many of us have lost loved ones to tobacco. Monday is like the New Year’s of the week, and can be used a great cue to quit smoking, to help people stay quit.”

Dr. Cohen and her colleagues are working with The Monday Campaigns, a nonprofit public health organization dedicated to establishing Monday as a good day to promote healthy behavior, and to develop tools for organizations and individuals to help people quit smoking. These resources, unified under the Quit and Stay Quit Monday campaign aim to help people quit and stay quit on World No Tobacco Day and beyond.

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