Author name: seatca

8 March 2023 March 8, 2023: Today, women and girls around the globe mark International Women’s Day to close the gender gap, acknowledge existing problems and celebrate wins. The theme DigitAll: Innovation and Technology for gender equality is wake-up call on how Big Tobacco’s harmful business uses technology to drive gender inequality instead of solving it. …

DigitAll: Use innovation and technology to free women from tobacco & vape trap Read More »

27 February 2023 According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, the number of e-cigarette battery air incidents has tripled since 2019, based on the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) database. E-cigarettes were the leading cause for lithium battery incidents on aircraft in 2022. The FAA has been recording incidents of fires involving lithium batteries …

Spontaneous combustion – Yet another reason to ban e-cigarettes Read More »

26 January 2023 The ASEAN region’s 125 million smokers present a lucrative market for the world’s largest transnational tobacco company, Philip Morris International (PMI), which is set to increase its business in 2023. PMI has the most (20 out of 39) manufacturing facilities located in South East Asia and significant share of the cigarette market …

Philip Morris set to expand its business in the ASEAN region Read More »

16 December 2022 2022 had mixed outcomes for tobacco control. As the COVID-19 pandemic eased slowly, governments and international agencies played catch-up with tobacco control while the tobacco industry stepped up its business to make-up for whatever lost opportunities. We had some wins with policy advancement while others faced challenges from Big Tobacco (PMI, BAT, …

2022 – The good, the bad and the ugly Read More »

8 December 2022 The recently concluded negotiations on a new global plastics treaty heard how this treaty should address cigarettes filters and must hold the tobacco industry accountable for the harm their product inflicts on the environment. Cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate, a type of plastic, and are toxic. Every year, about 4.5 …

Plastics treaty negotiations hears about toxic cigarette filters Read More »

28 November 2022 Philip Morris International has just announced it will launch a new brand of heated tobacco product (HTP) – Bonds – in the Philippines as a pilot market and further commercialize it in the remainder of 2022 and continue into 2023. PMI currently controls over 70% of the cigarette market in the Philippines and does not …

New deception – PMI’s Bonds launched in the Philippines as HTP Read More »

14 November 2022 It seems the tobacco industry’s grip on Indonesia is strong and shows no sign of easing. It operates in an industry-friendly environment not seen anywhere in Asia, enabling it to make huge profits. Although adolescent smoking is rising, Indonesia allows cigarette advertising and sponsorship targeting youth. National top sport, badminton, is still …

Indonesia – still pandering to the tobacco industry Read More »

12 September 2022 It is tax season in several ASEAN countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, and governments are deciding their 2023 budget. The tobacco control community has proposed tax increase on tobacco as a win-win policy to reduce consumption and improve public health, and increase government revenue. But the tobacco industry continues to oppose …

“Smuggling” – the tobacco industry’s all-purpose argument to oppose tax increase and tobacco control  Read More »

29 August 2022 Vaping groups and harm reduction advocates have stepped-up their pressure on governments to legalise e-cigarettes and other so called safer tobacco products. In their press statements, webinars, social media posts and letters to governments, they claim among the rationale to embrace these products is because they are 95% safer than cigarettes. Recently, …

Vaping advocates leading policy makers astray with ‘95% safer’ factoid Read More »