Reports from the Field
World Lung Foundation staff, grantees, partners and supporters share quick updates about their work in lung health around the world.Each posting has a comments section that you can use by setting up a WLF user account. We welcome your thoughts!
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Big Tobacco: Past or Present?
A new series on Field Reports, in which we contrast tobacco news from decades ago with current tobacco news—demonstrating just how little Big Tobacco’s playbook has changed.
QUESTION: Which quotes are from the past, and which is from the present?
Quote 1:
“Spokesmen for cigarette producers testified… that people already are aware of the alleged dangers of tobacco, and can make an informed choice whether or not to quit…the Tobacco Institute’s executive chairman, called the proposal for new labeling laws a ‘thinly veiled effort further to harass and ultimately eliminate an important American industry.’”
Quote 2:
“. . . Should the steering wheel of every car contain the image of a terrible traffic accident? Remember, the FDA’s suggested tobacco labels represent possible effects of smoking, not automatic ones. A pro-tobacco user could point to the case of Jeanne Calment as another possible effect [of smoking]; Calment died…at the age of 122, and only quit smoking at age 117. Perhaps tobacco companies should put her picture on their packages!”
Quote 3:
“Both Horace Konergay and William Dwyer, president and vice-president of the [Tobacco] institute, portrayed [Welfare Secretary] Califano—once a three-pack-a-day smoker—as a zealot out to convert the nation to his new anti-smoking views. ‘America beware if Joe Califano ever gives up drinking or other pleasure pursuits—even the most intimate,’ Mr. Dwyer said at a news conference.”Scroll to the bottom of the page for the answer!
ANSWER: Quote #1 is from a March 13, 1982 article describing tobacco companies’ objection to the text-based pack warnings currently in use. Quote# 2 is from a November 23, 2011 op-ed opposing graphic pack warnings in the United States. Quote # 3 is from a January 10, 1979 article describing tobacco executives’ attack on the government’s report on smoking’s harmful health effects. The tobacco industry hasn’t changed their tune too much: you can see the same public scare tactics in 1979 as 2011’s “nanny state” campaign against Australia’s visionary plain-packaging bill. In the United States, they are fighting graphic pack warnings today with the same themes they fought text-based pack warnings in the 1980’s: claiming that current warnings are sufficient and that tobacco has been ‘singled out’. These tactics didn’t stop regulation thirty years ago—but tobacco companies haven’t given them up; the current fight for graphic pack warnings may end up before the Supreme Court.
Stay tuned to Field Reports for more posts on Big Tobacco: Past or Present?
Stephen Hamill
Associate Director, Communications and Advocacy
World Lung Foundation -
This Week in Global Health
A weekly round- up of selected health news from around the world. Posted each Friday. Two thirds of 35-44 year olds said they would refuse a kiss from a smoker WLF kicks off a groundbreaking tobacco control campaign in Tabasco, Mexico. (Milenio Online; original article in Spanish. English translation available here .) The American Lung Association and the National Parks Conservation Association have joined forces, filing a lawsuit against the EPA over the inadequate regulation of airborne pollutants. (Long Island Press) Bill Gates jumps into the debate raging in the UK about aid to India, explaining why he’s invested over $1 billion to fight disease and poverty in the country. (Huffington Post) More motivation to quit: the BBC reports that many daters list smoking as a ‘big turn-off’. The weight gain feared by many smokers who have considered quitting is most often minimal, reports Medical Xpress. ...continue reading -
Two Days in Lille: A WLF Photoblog on Flickr
Photos from the 42nd Union World Conference on Lung Health in Lille, France Late last year, WLF’s Media Production Consultant in India, Dheeraj Kunzru, attended the 42nd Union World Conference on Lung Health . Here, he shares his photos of the event with Field Reports , giving us the inside look at this international conference. Click here to check out Dheeraj’s photos of the conference and see the smiling faces of WLF staffers from around the world! -
This Week in Global Health
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This Week in Global Health
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Norway in January
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This Week in Global Health
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Tobacco Control in Vietnam: Looking Forward to a Healthy New Year
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This Week in Global Health
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World Lung Foundation – Commonly Cited Resources and Materials
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This Week in Global Health
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This Week in Global Health
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Making Waves in 2011: WLF Speaks Out
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This Week in Global Health
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This Week in Global Health
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From Research to Action – China Tobacco Control Research Symposium, Lijiang, China
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Enroll now: WCTOH Mass Media Workshop – March 2012, Singapore
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This Week in Global Health
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This Week in Global Health
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“The conflict is over”: An insider’s unique perspective on smoking in Bollywood films
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This Week in Global Health
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This Week in Global Health
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Peter Baldini, Chief Executive Officer of WLF, reflects on five years of global tobacco control work with Bloomberg Philanthropies
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This Week in Global Health
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This Week in Global Health
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This Week in Global Health
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Update from Kigoma: WLF’s latest work in Tanzania
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This Week in Global Health
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WLF Assesses the Impact of the UN High-Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases: Part 2 of 2
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This Week in Global Health
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WLF Assesses the Impact of the UN High-Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases: Part 1 of 2
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This Week in Global Health
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Russia Doesn’t Want to be # 1 Anymore
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Friends and Foes: How did your country fare at the UN High-Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases
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This Week in Global Health
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Largest Conference on Tobacco Control in Chinese – Speaking World Held Successfully in Taipei
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Close to the Drama: Speaking with Dr. Staffan Bergstrom about delivering life-saving maternal health care to rural Tanzania
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This Week in Global Health
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Mashable’s Social Good Summit: The Highlights
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This Week in Global Health
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Follow the Action with Live Streaming Coverage from the UN Summit on NCDs
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This Week in Global Health
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Ask the Expert: Q&A with WLF's Rebecca Perl on FDA's New Tobacco Pack Warnings
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This Week in Global Health
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Glimmers of hope in Indonesia
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This Week in Global Health
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Is your country blocking progress on global health for the UN Summit on NCDs? An urgent call to action.
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Meeting Vietnam's Vice Health Minister Madame Xuyen
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Using Threat Appeals in New Media Channels
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This Week in Global Health
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Threat Appeals– How and when are they effective?
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This Week in Global Health
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This Week in Global Health
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Big Tobacco wants to be your Facebook friend
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This Week in Global Health
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The ‘Heartbreak’ Campaign- Fighting Tobacco’s Devastating Effects in India
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WLF In The News
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Lung Health: The Need for Cleaner Cooking Methods
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A Newbie’s Look at Graphic Tobacco Ads
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Tobacco Advertising to Russian Women, Part III: A Dose of Reality
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Tobacco Advertising to Russian Women, PART II: Making Death Look and Taste More Appealing
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Tobacco Advertising to Russian Women, Part I: Marketing Death to the Vulnerable
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Choking on Tar: Hard-hitting 'Sponge' ad shows Mauritians the frightening truth about smokers' lungs
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Tobacco Advertising That Reached Millions Banned on the Moscow Metro
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Lessons from Tobacco Control: Should the Food Industry sit at the health policy table?
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Tobacco Control in Tianjin – an Ongoing Effort
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Tobacco on the agenda at the UN NCD Meeting
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Tribute to Jamshed Chhor
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Ask the Expert: Q&A with FCA's Laurent Huber on
Tobacco Pack Warnings and FCTC Article 11 -
A New Yorker’s Response to Smoke-Free Park Scofflaws
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Launching the Anti-Tobacco Fight in Bangladesh
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They Never Stop
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Bangladesh's First Ever National Tobacco Control Mass Media Campaign
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Fighting Tobacco in the Philippines: No Easy Task
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A Global Fight: World Lung Foundation on World No Tobacco Day 2011
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Countdown to the UN High-Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs)
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"Too Graphic for TV”: Innovative new-media campaign shows the harms of chewing tobacco to millions of Indians
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WHO/Russian Ministerial Meeting on
Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in Moscow - Day 1 -
Bloomberg Philanthropies Applauds China's New Smoke-free Initiative
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Billboards in India: Ban Smokeless Tobacco
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Fighting Big Tobacco in China
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WLF Interview on Russia's Tobacco Tax Increase
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Anti-Corruption and Anti-Smoking: Hand-in-Hand in Tahrir Square
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Meeting Tobacco Control Allies in Tabasco and Mexico City
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CNBC: Lights, Camera, Action
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Long Overdue: Graphic Pack Warning Labels for Cigarettes in the United States
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The Myth of the Celebrity
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Reporting from Nairobi, Kenya
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Thoughts on a First CoP
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Turkish "Sponge" leaves hotline busy signals
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Smoke-Free Alexandria
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Travel Log: Tanzania, Mauritius, Bangladesh and India
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Incredible Istanbul: City offers the perfect smoke-free backdrop for WLF media workshop
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Asia Pacific Conference on Tobacco or Health
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2010 World Cancer Congress in Shenzhen, China
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Aus-Aid Australian Leadership Award Fellowship on Tobacco Control
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Sunday in Tanzania
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Smoke-free Alexandria, "effective immediately"
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WLF Workshop in Bogotá, Colombia
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Working Together for Tobacco Control in Vietnam
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WLF Brings Communications Course to Singapore
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Tanzania - Expanding Critical Health Services for Women and Children
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Run, WLF, Run!
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Craig David, Goodwill Ambassador against Tuberculosis
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Moscow Sponge Winter Campaign
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Spring Festival Gift-Giving in China
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Enhancing Maternal Health in Tanzania
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Some Things Just Don't Work that Well with Holes in Them
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I Love Smoke-Free Paris
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Media Communications Workshop in Singapore
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Poverty and Lung Health: 40th World Lung Conference in Cancún, Mexico
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Thanksgiving in Hanoi
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Moscow Duma Launches
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3rd Cross-Strait Conference on Tobacco Control
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Turkey Smoke-free site Visit
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Judith Mackay at WPRO meeting
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Egypt Mass Media Training
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Ad filming in Egypt