In this context, prior to WHO-World No Tobacco Day (May 31^st), ACT & ENSP will organize on May 24^th 2022, a conference for European stakeholders dedicated to tobacco control in Europe, with a particular angle of  environmental protection. The conference will be held in Brussels from 9h30 to 16h30, and it will focus on the environmental impact of the tobacco industry & the strategy it uses to greenwash its actions.

 

Event agenda will follow in due course.

The tobacco industry is interfering with public health efforts with various maneuvers to take the lead in the political and legislative process. It is well known how the industry exaggerates its economic importance, manipulates public opinion to be considered socially responsible, or discredits proven science. In the same context established by World No Tobacco Day, our Spanish colleagues and friends will host a webinar on April 27, 2022, focusing on the challenges faced by the tobacco control community in Spain. During this discussion day, participants will have the opportunity to reflect on these challenges at a time when a Comprehensive Plan is foreseen and new tobacco control legislation is soon to be announced.

DG SANTE will hold a stakeholder webinar to discuss progress on the draft EU NCD Initiative "Healthier Together" document and discussion on mental health, neurological disorders and chronic respiratory diseases strands.

The webinar will take place on April 27 from 10:30-12:30 CEST.

After two years, the ECPC Conference will be held in Brussels, offering all interested participants the chance to meet in person. 

The Conference "The Cancer Policy & Research Landscape in the meta-Covid Era" will be held on the 27th of May 2022 from 14:30h to 19:00h CEST. A dinner will follow at 20:00h CEST.

In February 2022, the advertising agency Mediatransports twice refused to allow the French public health group, ACT-Alliance contre le tabac to advertise in the Parisian subway and railway stations. The blocked advertisements are from ACT’s latest campaign “Change their future” which denounces the tobacco industry’s exploitation of young people.

 

Mediatransports based their censorship on the fallacious grounds that ACT’s advertisements   “denigrate the industry” and fall under “unfair practices.”. ACT – an NGO recognized as a general interest organization and mandated by the French National Health Insurance Fund to reveal the harms of the tobacco industry – denounces this refusal by the Mediatransports advertising agency to allow ACT to raise public awareness through factual and documented campaign materials.

At the beginning of April 2022, a statement of support for WHO’s recent decision on the Covifenz vaccine has been signed by 63 non-governmental organizations from around the world. These NGOs are deeply concerned about the tobacco industry's involvement in vaccine and biotech development and the potential for these efforts to advance the industry’s corporate social marketing campaigns.

 

Moreover, there are concerns about resulting Party violations of the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control Article 5.3 (industry interference) due to government collaborations with tobacco companies. Therefore, WHO’s approval of the Covifenz vaccine would conflict with Article 5.3 of the FCTC and it would violate the FENSA engagement guidelines.

 

The undersigned organizations encourage WHO to stand firm in rejecting involvement with vaccines sponsored by tobacco companies and ensure that any future WHO policies will reflect the letter and spirit of Article 5.3 of the FCTC. For these reasons and others described in the statement, NGOs urge the WHO and its partners to continue to refrain from assisting with the promotion, procurement, and distribution of the Covifenz vaccine.