This Saturday, Could 31, is World No Tobacco Day. Every year, the World Well being Group units a theme that highlights a vital ingredient of the struggle to finish the tobacco epidemic. This 12 months, ASH joins the WHO in “Unmasking the Enchantment.”
The place can we even begin? There’s simply a lot to unmask with the tobacco trade.
Nonetheless, please know that that is simply the tip of the iceberg; masking its true intention has been part of the tobacco trade enterprise mannequin for the reason that very starting.
What they’re hiding: cigarette harshness and addictiveness
How they disguise it: menthol flavoring makes cigarettes simpler to start out utilizing and tougher to give up
How we struggle again: ASH, the African American Tobacco Management Management Council, the American Medical Affiliation, and the Nationwide Medical Affiliation sued the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration over their inaction to ban menthol, regardless of a long time of analysis demonstrating the well being advantages that will observe.
What they’re hiding: the detrimental environmental impression of your entire lifecycle of cigarettes from manufacturing to make use of and past disposal
How they disguise it: tobacco firms fund applications that make it appear to be they’re environmentally acutely aware
How we struggle again: We shine a lightweight on any tobacco trade greenwashing world wide, calling out the irony of these actions and inspiring events to keep away from working with tobacco firms. (see video under)
What the Trade is hiding: their human rights violations
How they disguise it: by highlighting their “human rights achievements” that they need the general public to give attention to as an alternative.
How we struggle again: ASH particularly works to counter tobacco firms’ human rights violations by reporting these violations to United Nations our bodies with sturdy enforcement mechanisms that may name on nations to behave.
Tobacco Trade Lobbyists
What the trade is hiding: it’s affect in public well being coverage.
How they disguise it: tobacco firms rent quite a few lobbyists in each US state to foyer on behalf of their company monetary pursuits, to the detriment of public well being.
How we struggle again: ASH publishes a U.S. Tobacco Trade Lobbyist and Lobbying Agency Registration tracker to compile all registered tobacco lobbyists throughout the U.S. That is wanted as a result of each U.S. state has a separate, distinctive registration system which makes it a problem for advocates and policymakers to at all times have the ability to examine who’s lobbying on behalf of Large Tobacco’s pursuits as an alternative of on behalf of public well being pursuits.
On this World No Tobacco Day, it’s time to tug again the curtain as soon as and for all. For many years, the tobacco trade has thrived on deception—masking dependancy with taste, cloaking air pollution in greenwashing, dressing up illness with filters, parading over human rights abuses, and pulling coverage strings behind closed doorways.
However the fact is catching up.
Unmasking the attraction isn’t only a theme—it’s a rallying cry.
At ASH, we’re not simply exposing the lies; we’re taking motion, in courtrooms, on the UN, in state legislatures, and on the world stage. However we will’t do it alone.
Right here’s how one can be part of us:
- Educate your self and others: Share the info, share this weblog, and begin conversations that reduce by means of tobacco trade spin.
- Help tobacco management insurance policies: Help menthol bans and advocate for cigarette filter bans.
- Maintain the trade accountable: Use and promote instruments just like the ASH Lobbyist Tracker to shine a lightweight on hidden affect.
- Donate or accomplice with ASH: Assist us proceed this crucial work by supporting our mission by donating right here or by means of collaboration.
The tobacco trade’s masks is slipping—nevertheless it’s as much as all of us to ensure it comes off utterly.
