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The cost of tobacco use is enormous in Bangladesh and it is rising
The Bangladesh Cancer Society has recently published the full report “The Economic Cost of Tobacco Use in Bangladesh: A Health Cost Approach,” based on a comprehensive national-level study completed in collaboration with the University of Dhaka, and with financial and technical assistance from the American Cancer Society’s Global Cancer Control and Economic and Health Policy…
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Ethiopia is increasing its tobacco taxes by introducing a specific excise
Last week Ethiopia passed a landmark bill increasing taxes on tobacco products. The tax reform came almost exactly a year after the country passed its comprehensive tobacco control law introducing broad smoke-free policies, advertising bans, large pictorial warnings on packs, new age restrictions on cigarette purchasing as well as banning electronic cigarettes and flavored tobacco.…
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Tobacco use remains the indisputably leading preventable cause of cancer
This Tuesday, February 4, marked World Cancer Day. In honor of the occasion, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) released coordinated reports on the status of cancer prevention research and recommendations for combatting the disease worldwide. IARC’s World Cancer Report: Cancer Research for Cancer Prevention provides a…
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New WHO Report Finds Declines in Smoking Among Males For First Time Ever
A recent report from the World Health Organization (WHO) found that, for the first time ever, the number of males using tobacco is projected to decline globally. From a starting point of 1.093 billion in 2018, the report authors project 2 million fewer smokers in 2020 and 6 million fewer by 2025. This represents an…
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The employment impact of biri tax increase in Bangladesh is over-stated: new report
Biri is a traditional form of hand-rolled cigarettes that are largely non-filtered, popular among lower income smokers and produced in highly labor-intensive small-scale manufacturing units in Bangladesh (and several other countries in the region). The tax and prices of biri (also spelled bidi or beedi) have remained extremely low, and more importantly, much lower than the…
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Cancer Leaders in the Americas Identify Tobacco Control as a Critical Cancer Control Priority
In early December 2019, cancer leaders from nine countries in the Americas met in Bogotá, Colombia to strategize about how they could deepen their collaborative efforts to prevent cancer. Featured Picture: From left to right, Dr. Carlos José Castro, Medical Director, Liga Colombiana Contra el Cancér; Gloría Inés Forero de Ruíz, President, Liga Colombiana Contra…
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An Opportunity for Meaningful Public Health Progress: Zambia’s Pending Tobacco Control Legislation
In late November of 2019, Zambia’s finance minister, Bwalya Ng’andu, helped to officially inaugurate a new cigarette factory in the Multi Facility Economic Zone in the south of the nation’s capital, Lusaka. Mr. Ng’andu noted that it was the kind of investment that Zambia was seeking because it boosts revenue. Unfortunately, this viewpoint is incredibly…
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Why do farmers cultivate tobacco leaf? Evidence from Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa is a major and increasingly important producer of tobacco leaf for the global market. In the last decade, there has been a marked shift in tobacco leaf production from high income countries to Africa. Both the size of the area under tobacco cultivation and amount of tobacco leaf produced have increased markedly in…
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Cigarettes with flavored capsules in Chile: a trap for young people
Flavored cigarettes have been aggressively sold by tobacco companies for a relatively short time. Just 10 years ago, tobacco companies hardly marketed them. In 2019, however, in some countries, they are the main type of cigarettes consumed by young people. The case of Chile is an excellent example of this trend: in 2008, these products…
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Why Do Farmers Grow Tobacco? Evidence from Farmers in Indonesia and the Philippines
The supply of tobacco remains a pressing challenge to tobacco control. In the last two decades, there has been an increase in tobacco leaf production, especially in low- and middle-income countries where tobacco remains a popular and even dominant cash crop in some countries. This growth is happening despite a slow global decline in tobacco…