On the ocassion of the World No Tobacco Day, the WHO, the Secretariat of the WHO FCTC and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) are co-hosting a webinar, “Fighting tobacco product waste: Holding the tobacco industry accountable for its environmental footprint”.

The objectives of the webinar are:
•    To shed light on the global detrimental impact of tobacco product waste on environment, economy, societies, human health, biodiversity and water bodies.
•    To provide clarity on the policy concept of Extended Producer Responsibility and its practical application by presenting case studies.

Tobacco control experts and environmental advocates from around the world will join our roundtable discussion to connect the dots between Extended Producer Responsibility, tobacco industry liability and polluter pays principle. Panelists will discuss policy options for mitigating tobacco product waste, which will include case studies from Kigali and San Francisco.

The webinar will be held on Thursday, 2 June 2022, from 13:00 to 14:30 hrs (CEST). 

Additional information on the event and the registration link can be accessed through this link. 

The Parliament of Georgia adopted a set of amendments to the tobacco control legislation in May 2017 (Law No. 859-IIს), which foresaw the introduction of plain packaging for tobacco products. However, its implementation was postponed to 31 December 2022 through an amendment published in July 2017 (Law No. 1278-RS).

On 10 May 2022, the Parliament of Cabo Verde passed Law No. 8/X/2022 on tobacco control. The adoption of the Law brings the country closer to its long-term vision of fully aligning its tobacco control policies with the WHO FCTC, to which it is a Party since January 2006.

The new Law regulates most evidence-based demand and supply reduction measures, including:

The objectives of the webinar are: 

• To raise awareness of the tobacco industry’s destructive practices across the entire product life cycle, including deforestation, water depletion, use of pesticides and tobacco product waste
• To provide clarity on different policy options to counter greenwashing (e.g. Extended Producer Responsibility policies, raise taxes, ban on CSR activities, etc.).

Tobacco control experts and environmental advocates from around the world will join our roundtable discussion to expose the tobacco industry's greenwashing tactics through a series of country case studies from Brazil, France, Nigeria, Spain and Tanzania.

The webinar will be held on Thursday, 12 May 2022, from 13:00 to 14:30 hrs (CET).

For additional information on the event and accessing the registration link, please, click here.
 

The next phase in the implementation of the requirements of the “Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Regulations 2021” comes into force on 11 May 2022.

From 11 May 2022, all manufacturers and importers of vaping products and smokeless tobacco products must ensure that the products they are selling in New Zealand conform to the new packaging regulations. These new packaging regulations are outlined in Part 4 and Part 5 of the “Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Regulations 2021” for smokeless tobacco products and vaping products, respectively.