WHO has stepped up its counteroffensive against tobacco companies that market cigarettes and other tobacco products to teens – with the release of a new set of guidance for school-based anti-smoking policies.  The guidance, “Freedom from Tobacco and Nicotine: Guide for Schools,” and “Nicotine- and Tobacco-free School Implementation Toolkit”, aims to support school policies banning […] Continue reading ->
In groundbreaking new research, experts at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) have raised a cautious red flag about the artificial sweetener, aspartame, and its link to liver cancer, but stress that evidence is “limited”. IARC’s Dr Mary Schubauer-Berigan described the artificial sweetener as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” based on “limited evidence” of […] Continue reading ->
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated patients’ difficulties in accessing medication for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), but there is a range of measures countries can take to mitigate this – and a pandemic accord could address some of the structural weaknesses. COVID-19 had a disproportionate and far-reaching impact on people living with NCDs. Not only were they more […] Continue reading ->
An impossibly long list of member states lined up to address universal health coverage (UHC) and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) at the World Health Assembly on Thursday afternoon, indicating the centrality of these issues for countries. There was near-universal support for primary health services to be the backbone of UHC, with disease prevention as the other […] Continue reading ->
Tobacco companies in Indonesia, India and Mexico circumvented international football governing body FIFA’s advertising ban on their products by associating them with the World Cup, according to a new social media analysis by public health group Vital Strategies. Data recorded by Vital Strategies’ digital media monitoring system found 354 instances of tobacco marketing in public […] Continue reading ->