Tag: Action on Smoking and Health

Tobacco Violates Human Rights: Report

Photo: Corgarashu
OxySuisse and Action on Smoking and Health accuse the tobacco industry of violating human rights and Swiss authorities of complacency, reports SWI. Switzerland hosts the headquarters of Philip Morris International and Japan Tobacco International.
In a recent report, the nongovernmental organizations analyze the tobacco industry’s behavior from a human rights perspective. In their paper, the authors assert that the tobacco industry is incompatible with fundamental human rights. The production and marketing of addictive and deadly products, they argue, infringes the right to health, the right to life and the right to a healthy environment, OxySuisse says.
Despite suffering around 9,500 smoking-related deaths annually, Switzerland lags far behind its peers in the fight against smoking, ranking 36 out of 37 European countries, notes OxySuisse.
This discrepancy can be explained by the weight of the tobacco industry in the Swiss Confederation, according to the nongovernmental organization. “The presence in Switzerland of two of the country’s influential tobacco multinationals is one of the reasons for the failure to implement effective smoking prevention policies,” Michela Canevascini, director of OxySuisse, told Swiss public television on Oct. 8.
Switzerland, she noted, prioritizes the commercial interests of these companies at the expense of the Swiss population’s health.
October 9, 2024
Deborah Arnott to Retire from ASH

Photo: Lyubov
Deborah Arnott will be retiring from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) on Sept. 30, and the board of trustees is starting the recruitment process for her successor.
During her 21-year tenure at ASH, Arnott developed and led campaigns that contributed to U.K. legislation prohibiting smoking in public places, putting tobacco out of sight in shops and plain standardized tobacco packs. According to ASH, the ratcheting up of regulation has been accompanied by substantial declines in smoking prevalence of more than half among adults and more than 80 percent among children aged 11–15.
Before Arnott retires, Parliament is expected to have passed laws to create a smoke-free generation.
“I want to thank Deborah for her passion and determination over the last 21 years,” said Nick Hopkinson, chair of trustees at ASH, in a statement. “While everyone at ASH will be sad to see Deborah go, she leaves ASH in a robust position, with sound finances and a talented staff team. The next chief executive will inherit a highly motivated group of colleagues and supporters. Now is an exciting time for tobacco control, with government commitments to a smoke-free future and raising the age of sale to create a smoke-free generation overwhelmingly supported by the public and Parliament.”
Arnott said, “I am proud to be leaving ASH at a good time and in safe hands, well on the way to delivery of our mission to eliminate the harm caused by tobacco. Our values, the strength of our team, the quality of ASH advocacy and networking, and our reputation and influence all stand us in good stead for the future. Whoever takes over from me is inheriting the leadership of an outstanding organization.”
Bob Blackman, Member of Parliament and chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health, which ASH provides the secretariat for, said, “What has been achieved in tobacco legislation over the last 21 years is in no small measure due to the brilliant work led by Deborah at ASH. Working in collaboration with politicians from across the political spectrum, she has built and sustained a truly cross-party consensus on ending the harms from smoking. As a result, I have no doubt that MPs from every party will vote to create a smoke-free generation later this year. We have much to thank her for.”
February 13, 2024
Studies Refute Vaping-Smoking Link

Photo: Andrey Popov
There is no evidence that the use of e-cigarettes and heated-tobacco products is leading nonsmokers and youth toward smoking, according to several studies.
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) U.K. cited the results of five large surveys of 11-year-olds to 16-year-olds in the U.K. between 2015 and 2017 showing that “most young people who experiment with e-cigarettes did not become regular users,” according to media reports.
“Overall, there is no evidence that e-cigarettes have driven up smoking prevalence in this age group. In fact, smoking prevalence among young people has declined since e-cigarettes came onto the market,” ASH U.K. stated.
A time-series analysis led by Emma Beard between 2007 and 2018 in the U.K. showed that the increase in the prevalence of e-cigarette use in England among the entire sample does not appear to have been associated with an increase in the uptake of smoking among young adults aged 16 to 24.
A 2022 study by University of Bristol researchers found that, based on the “current balance of evidence, using triangulated data from recent population-level cross-contextual comparisons, individual-level genetic analyses and modeling, we do believe, however, that causal claims about a strong gateway effect from e-cigarettes to smoking are unlikely to hold while it remains too early to preclude other smaller or opposing effects.”
A 2020 study by Colin Mendelsohn and Wayne Hall concluded that claims of vaping serving as a gateway to smoking are unconvincing. “Smoking more often precedes vaping than vice versa, regular vaping by never-smokers is rare, and the association is more plausibly explained by a common liability model,” they stated.
Another comprehensive analysis of whether vaping causes smoking uptake was published by the University of Queensland in Australia. That study also concluded that there was little evidence of a gateway effect. If a gateway effect does exist, it is likely to be small, the study said.
A 2021 study by Wayne Hall and Gary Chan on the “gateway” effect of e-cigarettes found that “e-cigarette use has not been accompanied by increased cigarette smoking among young people in the United States as would be the case if e-cigarette use were a major gateway to cigarette smoking.”
September 19, 2022
Misperceptions About Risk Drive Down Vaping

Photo: Vchalup – Dreamstime.com
The number of vapers in the U.K. declined by 400,000 since last year, despite mounting evidence that e-cigarettes are effective smoking-cessation aids, according to a study commissioned by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).
The Health Charity blames a “misguided belief vaping is just as harmful as cigarettes.”
“About a third of smokers have never even tried an e-cigarette, and less than 20 percent are currently using one,” said Deborah Arnott, CEO of ASH, in a statement. “If many more smokers could be encouraged to give e-cigarettes a go, the latest evidence indicates that many more might successfully quit.”
Only 39 percent of smokers in the country believe vaping is less harmful than smoking combustible cigarettes.
This year, there were 3.2 million e-cigarette users in the country, down from 3.6 million in 2019.
A review conducted by Cochrane suggests vaping could help more people stop smoking.

“There is now evidence that electronic cigarettes with nicotine are likely to increase the chances of quitting [smoking] successfully compared to nicotine gum or patches,” said Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, an expert at the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group who co-led the review.

The review included evidence from 50 studies around the world.

There was no clear evidence of serious harm resulting from nicotine-containing e-cigarettes, but since the review used a relatively small number of studies, the evidence is still uncertain.

“Scientific consensus holds that electronic cigarettes are considerably less harmful than traditional cigarettes but are not risk-free,” Hartmann-Boyce said.
October 15, 2020