Last week to submit your abstract proposal!

5^th European Conference on Tobacco Control 

10-12 June 2020 - Paris, France

The final deadline for submissions of abstracts/symposia proposals is 
15 March 2020.

Conference Early Bird Registrations

Public consultation on the European Commission’s
Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan

Every year, 3.5 million people in the EU are diagnosed with cancer, and 1.3 million people die from cancer each year. In fact, 40% of us are likely to face this disease at some stage of our life. The EU has been actively working to reduce the incidence of cancer for decades. The first ‘Europe against Cancer Plan’, dating back to the late 1980s, resulted in important EU legislation on tobacco and occupational health. Since then, EU Member States have committed to reducing mortality from chronic diseases, including cancer.

Against this background Commission President von der Leyen has committed to a European plan to fight cancer, to support Member States and stakeholders in improving cancer control and care to reduce the suffering caused by this disease. The Commission intends to design the plan to cover the entire cycle of the disease starting from prevention and early diagnosis to treatment and quality of life of patients and survivors. shall be placed at the centre of this plan. With this public consultation, the European Commission invites all interested individuals or organisations to share their views and experiences to feed into a European cancer plan putting European citizens at the centre.

More information on EU-actions on cancer here...

For reasons of transparency, organisations and businesses taking part in public consultations are asked to register in the EU’s Transparency Register.

Let's shape together the European Cancer Plan and fight for a smoke free world!

WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control :
a 15-year-old global treaty that protects and saves lives from the harms of tobacco

To celebrate this paramount event, the Secretariat has launched a campaign with a set of visuals and slogans and messages that can be used by everyone as one united voice to raise awareness about the WHO FCTC and its impact.

The slogans of the campaign are:

Working towards a tobacco-free world

Celebrating 15 years of lives

The main goal of this campaign is to celebrate the 15th year anniversary of the entry into force of the WHO FCTC by acknowledging its momentousness, its achievements and by raising awareness of its profile, its cross-cutting nature and how it can help save lives through its implementation.

Achievements for public health

• The Convention represents a milestone for the promotion of public health and provides new legal dimensions for international cooperation.
• As a key achievement in implementation of the Convention, a second treaty, the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products was adopted by the fifth session of the Conference of the Parties in 2012. The Protocol entered into force on 25 September 2018. The Protocol now has 58 Parties.
• Also, the role of the FCTC in promoting sustainable development is now fully recognized within the 2030 Sustainable Development agenda: the strengthening of the implementation of the FCTC in all countries is a means of implementation for Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages; and it contributes to the achievement of other goals too .
• After 15 years of existence, the WHO FCTC has succeeded in keeping tobacco control high on the global agenda, while saving lives and improving global health.
• The WHO FCTC has also been instrumental in legal defenses against the tobacco industry challenges to tobacco control policies and have increased awareness of tobacco industry interference.
• A domino effect was noted with the adoption of plain packaging in Australia – the first one – and now many other countries around the world have followed suit. 88% of all Parties now require pictorial health warnings.
• Since the entry into force of the WHO FCTC in 2005, over 90% of all Parties to the Convention have implemented measures to protect their citizens and their workers from exposure to tobacco smoke by applying a ban on tobacco smoking indoor workplaces, public transports and other public places.
• 60% of all Parties have facilitated the accessibility and affordability of pharmaceutical products for the treatment of tobacco dependence.
• 34 Parties have earmarked a proportion of their tobacco taxation income for funding national plans, tobacco control strategies or other activities in tobacco control.
• 64% of all Parties have prohibited or restricted imports of tax and duty free tobacco products by international travelers and over two -third of all Parties have instituted a comprehensive ban on all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.

ASH Statement regarding the measures on reducing tobacco sales in the Netherlands

On 3rd of March, the Dutch House of Representatives passed a bill designed to significantly reduce the number of retail outlets for tobacco products, aiming to restrict sales to tobacco-only, adult-only specialty stores. If passed, the law would give other retailers until the end of 2022 to eliminate tobacco sales voluntarily, after which it will become mandatory. Studies have shown that reducing access to tobacco products is a key factor in keeping kids from starting use and inspiring adults to quit.

If the bill becomes law, the Netherlands will have among the strongest tobacco retail laws in the world, and certainly the strongest in a high-income country. To date, only Bhutan has banned tobacco sales altogether. Worldwide, there is a growing interest in attacking the supply side of the tobacco epidemic. Two cities in California – Beverly Hills and Manhattan Beach – have passed laws phasing out commercial tobacco sales by January 1, 2021, and others seem determined to join them in order to protect the health of their citizens.