The tobacco industry is deliberately targeting children with nicotine products, using targeted marketing to lure the younger generation into smoking while publicly promoting e-cigarettes as a less harmful alternative for smokers, according to a new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and STOP, a tobacco industry watchdog. The report, released ahead of World No-Tobacco […] Continue reading ->
A $3-million “educational” deal between tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI) and Medscape, a medical education provider for healthcare professionals, has been abandoned after the BMJ and The Examination exposed it last month. The deal involved a PMI grant to Medscape to fund continuing medical education (CME) accredited courses on smoking cessation for doctors and […] Continue reading ->
COPENHAGEN –  In Lebanon, international donors are supporting a network of public primary health care centers to test for diabetes and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), offering treatment equally to Lebanese nationals and Syrian refugees who are unlikely to return anytime soon to their war-torn homeland.  In Kenya, a new national insurance law aims to make […] Continue reading ->
The Tenth Conference of Parties (COP10) of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) sidestepped a controversial debate on e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products – effectively kicking the can on any decisions related to regulation of that swelling market to the next meeting in two years time. However, the parties at the conference, […] Continue reading ->
World Health Organization’s (WHO) Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus lauded the success of tobacco control measures at the Wednesday evening session of the Executive Board meeting, but expressed concerns about the growing use of harmful products like e-cigarettes among youth. He urged member states, “to take swift action to counter this emerging threat” of children […] Continue reading ->
Despite strong evidence that taxing alcohol is one of the “most effective measures to reduce consumption and address alcohol-related harms”, countries are not using this effectively, according to Ruediger Krech, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) director of health promotion. Krech was speaking on Tuesday at the launch of a WHO manual on alcohol tax policy […] Continue reading ->