SEATCA Press Release

Tobacco industry trashes the planet while it profits and greenwashes

Media release for World Environment Day, 5 June 2022 Bangkok, 4 June 2022 – Tobacco claims 8 million lives globally and trashes the environment in the process. Over 6.25 trillion cigarettes are smoked worldwide every year, including 531 billion sticks in the ASEAN region, most of which are discarded into the environment. This is in …

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Philippines’ Supreme Court decision upholding FDA authority over tobacco products quashes industry attempt to escape health authorities

Bangkok, 13 June 2022 – The Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) welcomed the Philippine Supreme Court’s decision upholding the authority of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Health (DOH) to regulate all products affecting health, including tobacco products. This decision is significant as it quashes a legal challenge by the …

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WNTD 2022: Tobacco industry harms people and planet

Bangkok, 30 May 2022 – Tobacco not only kills over eight million people every year; it also massively harms the environment. From cultivation to manufacturing, distribution, consumption, and post-consumption, tobacco endangers the environment and the health and well-being of people. Governments should make tobacco companies accountable for the harms that they cause the environment and …

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Break free from Nicotine

CSR Did you know that the tobacco industry uses pretend charity to whitewash the many harms it has caused to the environment and communities worldwide?An industry that kills eight million people each year has no place in sustainable development. Governments should reject any form of charity from the tobacco industry.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hzgd_QdTKY ENDs and HTPs Tobacco Taxation …

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Myanmar government bows to industry pressure, delays implementation of standardized tobacco packaging by 12 months

12 April 2022, Bangkok: As per its Ministry of Health directive issued last 12 October 2021, Myanmar was set to implement standardized tobacco packaging after 180 days or by 10 April 2022, followed by a 90-day phaseout of old tobacco packaging. However, transnational, and local cigarette and cheroot producers successfully lobbied for the implementation deadline …

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PASS or FAIL: ASEAN countries called to step up protection of public health 

Press Statement by the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) 23 February 2022, Bangkok: Tobacco kills 500,000 people each year in the ASEAN alone, and governments need to urgently accelerate their tobacco control efforts, especially in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic, says the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance. According to the 2021 FCTC …

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Philippine youth in danger as Senate rolls back minimum age on electronic smoking devices

(Bangkok, December 14, 2021): Doctors and health groups in the Philippines decried the Philippine Senate’s approval of Senate Bill 2239 (Vape Bill) on third and final reading despite firm and repeated protests from the health sector and public interest lawyers and youth groups. Existing laws (Republic Act (RA) 11346 and RA 11467) to regulate electronic …

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Tobacco industry meddling in Asia’s efforts to protect health during COVID-19 pandemic

Bangkok, December 1, 2021: The COVID-19 pandemic did not stop the tobacco industry from interfering in government efforts to protect public health. No country was spared from the meddling; yet tools available to governments to protect their health policies remain largely underutilized. These are the main findings of the latest Asian Tobacco Industry Interference Index …

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New global report recognizes pictorial health warnings and standardized tobacco packaging in ASEAN

(Bangkok, 11 Nov 2021) The Cigarette Package Health Warnings: International Status Report, released by the Canadian Cancer Society on 9 November, shows all 10 ASEAN countries are among the 134 out of 206 countries and jurisdictions across the world that now require pictorial health warnings on cigarette packaging, covering 70% of the world’s population. There …

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Philippine delegation earns second Dirty Ashtray award for supporting tobacco industry interests at global tobacco control treaty negotiations

9 November, Bangkok: At the end of Day 1 of the Ninth Conference of Parties (COP9) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the Philippine delegation merited the infamous Dirty Ashtray for multiple statements insisting on unhelpful language that has severely delayed adoption of the COP9 agenda and is obstructing the work ahead. …

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