UN Plastic Air pollution Treaty Negotiations – ASH > Motion on Smoking & Well being

August 5, 2025 – At this time, international locations of the world started the final spherical of negotiations of the UN Treaty to Finish Plastic Air pollution. We hope international locations will be capable of agree on what steps are wanted to sort out essentially the most problematic types plastic air pollution.

ASH will likely be current all through the negotiations to make sure that cigarette filters, one of the vital littered objects on this planet, is included within the checklist of problematic single use plastics to be banned.

Moreover, ASH will name for the plastics treaty to align with UN well being and human rights treaties, and notably the WHO Framework Conference on Tobacco Management which has already referred to as on international locations to adequately deal with cigarette filters as a result of they don’t defend well being and harm the environment.

Learn ASH’s Opening Assertion Right here and Beneath>

Nonetheless, company personal pursuits are closely represented in these negotiations, so this week may show to be troublesome for well being, the setting, and human rights.

A number of members of ASH’s delegation and the Cease Tobacco Air pollution Alliance put in a show of cigarette filters to suggest the hurt that cigarette filters pose to the environment and waterways.

Learn ASH’s Press Launch on the Artwork Set up in entrance of the UN in the present day>

Excerpt:

ASH joins AT Schweiz (Swiss Affiliation for Tobacco Management), Stop2Drop, Cease Tobacco Air pollution Alliance, and different civil society organizations in calling for a worldwide ban on cigarette filters.

“Failure to ban the world’s most pervasive type of plastic air pollution, which is connected to the world’s deadliest client product, would sign that the Negotiating Committee just isn’t severe about reaching its mandate,” stated ASH Government Director Laurent Huber who’s attending INC5.2 this week.

The world is negotiating – cigarette filters should not be forgotten.

Assertion for INC5.2 Opening Plenary from Motion on Smoking and Well being

Thanks for this chance to submit testimony. My title is Laurent Huber, the CEO of Motion on Smoking and Well being, a member of the worldwide Cease Tobacco Air pollution Alliance, a coalition of tobacco management and environmental organizations created to take part in these negotiations.

I need to make three particular factors that I imagine are essential for a profitable conclusion to our work.

The primary is to echo what has been stated by many delegations and members of civil society: not all plastics are the identical. They range in a number of dimensions. Some are extra problematic than others; some are extra poisonous than others; some are much less essential than others; and a few are single-use. Some plastics must be regulated, and a few must be banned instantly.

A singular instance of the latter is cigarette “filters.” I emphasize that the phrase filter doesn’t have the identical which means as different filters because it implies that they take away a few of the dangerous chemical compounds from cigarettes. To be clear, they don’t, and had been by no means supposed to. AS WHO has said, cigarette don’t defend well being, and the discharge of tiny plastic particles in the course of the act of smoking causes extra hurt. They make cigarettes extra lethal, not much less. Cigarette filters are wholly pointless.

As soon as cigarettes are smoked, the filters change into cigarette butts, that are full of poisons and carcinogens in addition to plastic. A small cigarette butt could look like a little bit factor, however one butt dropped right into a goldfish bowl will kill the goldfish. Filters are extraordinarily poisonous.

Cigarette filters are essentially the most littered merchandise on earth. Roughly 4.5 trillion filters – sure, trillion – are discarded into the setting annually. As you stroll down the road tonight look down. You will note them all over the place. Cigarette filters are a significant supply of microplastics. Any checklist of plastics to be banned should embody cigarette filters.

As such, cigarette filters should be included in Annex Y together with the checklist of merchandise to section out by a particular date.

My second level is that this: simply as not all plastics are the identical, not all stakeholders are the identical. I urge delegations to account for inherent conflicts of curiosity as they finalize this treaty. To return to tobacco for example, the tobacco trade is excluded from taking part within the WHO Framework Conference on Tobacco Management due to the inherent battle between their pursuits and the pursuits of public well being. Not all conflicts of curiosity are as stark, however I urge you to think about these conflicts. The emphasis on inclusivity is laudable, however the issue we deal with is simply too extreme to fret about making certain persevering with company income. The general good of society must be our overriding purpose.

Lastly, I need to stress the significance of connecting the plastics treaty to different worldwide devices and norms, specifically well being and human rights. It’s crucial to acknowledge the broader affect plastics has on individuals past litter. Ultimately, environmentalism is about human well being – we developed on this planet, and the extra our actions change the planet the additional we get from a wholesome setting. Each well being and a wholesome setting are acknowledged human rights. The treaty textual content ought to explicitly acknowledge human rights and well being treaties, not least the WHO Framework Conference on Tobacco Management, which itself hyperlinks to human rights and contains Article 18 on defending the setting.

Thanks,

Motion on Smoking and Well being

ASH’s Key Factors for INC-5.2 can be found to evaluation in: English

Hold studying about ASH’s work on plastic air pollution