|
|
|
|
Dr Patricia Ranald, honorary research associate at the University of Sydney and honorary convener of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network, writes in The Guardian on the Australian government's experience of being sued by Philip Morris International and why corporations shouldn't be given such powers.
Liz Truss, Secretary of State for International Trade, confirmed that corporate rights to sue governments are being discussed in the final negotiations for the Australia-UK free trade agreement before an announcement at the G7 meeting in the UK on 11 June. This would be made possible by the inclusion of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions. ISDS are unpopular, Ranald says, because it gives global (but not local) corporations special rights to sue governments for millions of dollars in international tribunals if they can argue that changes to regulation by any level of government will harm the value of their investment.
Ranald cites when the US Philip Morris company sued Australia for billions over plain packaging law: "The Philip Morris company could not sue under the US-Australia free trade agreement, because community opposition resulted in the Howard government refusing to include ISDS in the 2004 agreement. Tobacco companies comprehensively lost a compensation claim in Australia’s high court, and had to pay the government’s costs. Philip Morris found an obscure Hong Kong-Australia investment agreement which included ISDS, shifted some assets to Hong Kong, declared they were a Hong Kong company and claimed billions in compensation, prompting community outrage."
"It took the international tribunal almost five years to decide that Philip Morris was not a Hong Kong company and the tribunal could not hear the case. It took a further two years and two FOI requests to reveal that Australia’s legal costs were $24m, and only half of this was recovered. So even when governments win ISDS cases, they lose taxpayers’ money that could be better spent elsewhere" Ranald writes.
Ranald concludes that ISDS should be left out of any trade agreement between Australia and the UK, saying that: "ISDS defenders point out that there are some exceptions for health, environment and Indigenous rights legislation in most agreements. But these exceptions do not prevent cases from being launched. Governments can only use exceptions to defend cases, which means they still bear the legal costs."
Source: The Guardian, 1 June 2021
See also: The Conversation - When even winning is losing. The surprising cost of defeating Philip Morris over plain packaging
|
|
Campaigners have called for a minimum unit price (MUP) for alcohol in England after research showed it has reduced consumption in some of the heaviest drinking households in Scotland and Wales. A 50p per unit price was introduced in Scotland in 2018 and an in-depth shopping survey two years on has found the policy has had a lasting impact.
A similar minimum unit price in Wales, brought in around the start of lockdown last year, has also brought positive change, the survey of 35,000 British households found. Research by Newcastle University, published in the Lancet Public Health, showed the greatest reductions overall were in the purchase of ciders and spirits. The impact was mainly seen in homes that bought the most alcohol – with the exception of high-purchasing households with the very lowest incomes, who did not change their habits despite the increase. The research came amid fears about increased alcohol consumption across the UK during lockdown.
Prof Sir Ian Gilmore, the chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance, said: “Westminster has said time and time again that it is waiting for evidence from Scotland and Wales on minimum unit pricing – meanwhile, 80 people a day are dying from an alcohol-related cause.”
Prof Peter Anderson, from Newcastle University, who led the study, said: “Our previous work suggested that the introduction of an MUP in Scotland during May 2018 was associated with an immediate reduction in the amount of alcohol that households bought from shops or supermarkets. This latest analysis shows that the policy has continued to make an impact, with data showing a sustained drop in overall units of alcohol bought by some of the highest-consuming households, two years on. We can now see that the introduction of an MUP in Wales at the beginning of March 2020 has had a similar impact to the one we saw in Scotland in 2018."
|
|
More than 80% of Scots back a ban on smoking outside schools to protect children's health, a survey indicates. Asthma UK and British Lung Foundation Scotland surveyed 1,002 adults in Scotland and found four in five (81.1%) want smoking outside the school gates to be prohibited.
Joseph Carter, head of Asthma UK and British Lung Foundation Scotland, said: "To reach Scotland's smoke-free target of less than 5% of adults smoking by 2034, we need to stop normalising smoking around children. Passive smoking not only has detrimental health effects on children's lungs, but it also increases the likelihood that they too will become smokers later in life. It is vital that we protect the next generation's lungs from the effects of smoke. That is why we are calling for the new Government to commit to banning smoking around schools and playgrounds."
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "Stopping smoking at any time is one of the best things you can do for your health, and we will always consider proposals from Asthma UK and British Lung Foundation Scotland."
Source: The Herald, 31 May 2021
|
|
Creating more spaces where people feel 'empowered' not to smoke will be a priority for Oxfrdoshire County Council as part of plans to deliver a smokefree county by 2025. This would include encouraging employers to stop smoking outside offices and factories, or by creating smokefree areas in newly created pavement dining areas. Oxfordshire's public health director, Ansaf Azhar last week described the strategy as a 'long game' to change smoking culture, with the aim of preventing deaths from diseases linked to tobacco.
Dr Adam Briggs, the public health official leading the strategy, added: "We have got a condition that is entirely a commercially driven cause of death and disease. It is impossible to be on the wrong side of history with tobacco consumption."
Andrew McHugh, the council's Lead Member for Health and Wellbeing, said he had asked Cherwell District Council, where he is a councillor, to make all new pavement licenses smoke-free. Pavement licenses allow restaurants and bars to place tables and chairs outside their premises. The council denied the request, saying that the easing of coronavirus restrictions was not the time to impose more rules on businesses. But Dr Briggs asked members of the board, who sit on different councils around Oxfordshire, to make similar requests in the near future.
Source: Oxford Mail, 1 June 2021
|
|
Professor Amy S. Patterson, University of the South, writes in The Washington Post to commemorate World No Tobacco day, which took place yesterday (Monday 31st May 2021). World No Tobacco Day was established in 1987 to increase awareness about the dangers of tobacco use. The World Health Organization estimates that tobacco use kills 8 million people annually. Professor Patterson notes that World No Tobacco Day this year focuses on urging tobacco users to quit.
Discussing her own research, Professor Patterson describes how tobacco control policy implementation has been highly uneven in sub-Saharan Africa, even though several African countries led the process for the approval of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a global public health treaty on tobacco. In the past 35 years, tobacco use in the region has risen 50%, and tobacco-related deaths are also increasing. Through interviews with health advocates, Professor Patterson's research shows that talking about tobacco control in ways that match local priorities is key. "These priorities can sometimes get lost in global tobacco control advocacy circles, where activists from low-income countries are underrepresented." Patterson says, adding that "African advocates stress not just lives lost, but also the cost to economic development. They point to tobacco taxes as a potential revenue source, and for tobacco-producing countries, they highlight the long-term environmental cost of tobacco farming. Increasingly, human rights advocates point to the poverty of tobacco growers, the dangers of secondhand smoke to children’s health and the use of child labour in tobacco farming."
Professor Patterson concludes by noting that "the coronavirus pandemic may challenge tobacco control efforts. Although data are limited, stress and isolation may be contributing to increased cigarette use in the United States. And tobacco cessation advocates could face more competition for resources and policymakers’ attention. But the pandemic has shown how infectious-disease outbreaks interact with noncommunicable diseases to increase illness and death. Preventing these outcomes through implementation of tobacco control policies matters as countries seek to recover from the pandemic, and address future global health challenges."
Source: The Washington Post, 31 May 2021
|
|
Italy’s anti-trust regulator said on Monday 31st May that it had launched a probe into the Italian unit of British America Tobacco (BAT) over alleged covert advertising of its tobacco heating product Glo Hyper on social media.
The watchdog said in a statement that three influencers who had commercial agreements with BAT invited their followers on Instagram to publish content linked to Glo Hyper, without specifying it was advertising. It added that the Italian tax police had carried out inspections of BAT offices on May 27th.
BAT Italia said in a statement that it was convinced it had acted in a correct manner and was confident the outcome of the probe would demonstrate this.
Source: Reuters, 31 May 2021
|
|
Have you been forwarded this email? Subscribe to ASH Daily News here.
For more information email [email protected] or visit www.ash.org.uk
@ASHorguk
ASH Daily News is a digest of published news on smoking-related topics. ASH is not responsible for the content of external websites. ASH does not necessarily endorse the material contained in this bulletin.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
