World No Tobacco Day 2022, May 31, focuses on how tobacco pollutes our environment and harms people’s health throughout its life cycle.
Every year, WHO awards organizations and individuals who promote and implement tobacco control in the region. WHO carefully selects winners for their long-term commitment and outstanding contributions to research, advocacy, health promotion, and capacity building in these areas.
World No Tobacco Day provides an opportunity for WHO to recognize these achievements while raising awareness and building support for global tobacco control measures. The following six organizations and individuals in the region have been commended for their significant contributions to the fight against tobacco use.
Georgia National Center for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC)
NCDC is Georgia’s leading agency responsible for tobacco control policymaking, oversight, awareness raising and capacity building. It was a co-author and strong supporter of the National Tobacco Control Act, which came into force on May 1, 2018. NCDC has also worked to increase the availability of outage services and has succeeded in establishing a free smoking cessation line that operates for 7 days. one week.
NCDC is the first in Georgia to lead efforts to address the impact of tobacco on the environment, including through the establishment of special units dedicated to this topic, within the framework of the 2018 National Health Promotion Program. It is an institution of. Numerous in this area, including cleanup events to raise awareness of cigarette butts as contaminants, school awareness visits, and the development of policy options for marking filtered cigarette product packages as disposable plastics. The activity of the product.
Ms Ainuru Altybaeva, Chairman of the Kyrgyzstan Public Association “Ayaldar Kenesh” (Women’s Council)
While working in Parliament from 2015 to 2021, Ainuru Altybaeva worked closely with the Ministry of Health to insist on a public health initiative aimed at reducing national tobacco use. She opposed the strong lobbying of the tobacco industry and was instrumental in promoting public health benefits through open debates, roundtables and conferences.
In particular, Ms. Artivaeva led a group of parliamentarians in the development of a powerful Tobacco Control Act (No. 121) and was active in both parliamentarians and the media for more than three years before being adopted on September 15, 2021. Was discussed in. The adoption of the law is considered by national and international partners to be a major victory in tobacco control in Kyrgyzstan.
Nofumadores.org, Spain
Nofumadores.org is a non-governmental organization dedicated to protecting the rights of nonsmokers and making people and politicians sensitive to tobacco control. The organization has been running with minimal financial resources since 2004, but due to the great dedication, enthusiasm and altruism of the board, it has become one of the leading players in the Spanish tobacco control movement.
The campaign to collect signatures to help non-smoking beaches is one of the best environmental actions. Petitions signed by more than 330,000 people and organizations have been delivered to both the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Ecosystem Transition. As a result, the new Spanish Waste Law adopted on April 4, 2022 now includes a clause authorizing the local council to impose a fine of up to € 2000 for smoking on the beach. .. Since Nofumadores.org launched the campaign in 2018, the number of smokeless beaches in Spain has increased six-fold to reach 525.
In addition, in 2021, Nofumadores.org led a campaign that attracted the support of 151 organizations around the world, urging the municipalities of La Glaciosa to break agreements with major tobacco companies. The company used the island to greenwash its image while encouraging the switch to heat-not-burn tobacco products.
Nofumadores.org is working with Spanish legislators to continue advancing the tobacco and nicotine-free future agenda, using the 2030 Spain Late Declaration as its primary roadmap.
Hans Stockli, a member of the Swiss Parliament (House of Councilors of the Swiss Parliament) and former President
Hans Stöckli has launched a Tobacco-Free Kids Initiative to ban tobacco advertising for minors in Switzerland. In his role as chairman of the initiative committee, he effectively coordinated the broad alliance of health agencies that support it. His will, motivation, and power of political knowledge gained momentum, eventually collecting over 100,000 signatures and supporting the initiative in favor of a popularity vote. The initiative won the popularity poll on February 13, 2022, after a difficult campaign in which opponents received a great deal of support from the tobacco industry.
Stöckli’s work of excellence is a strong example of leadership in the country’s tobacco control movement, and the success of the campaign is a historic step forward in Switzerland’s tobacco prevention and health promotion.
Ms Lada Bulakh, MP, Ukraine
Lada Bluff, one of the leaders of the Ukrainian Parliamentary Tobacco Control Movement, is the lead author of Tobacco Control Law No. 1978-IX, which she advocated for almost two years. This law was adopted in December 2021 and came into force in January 2022. This law introduces European requirements to protect the public from the harm of tobacco in accordance with the European Union (EU) Directive 2014/40 / EU and the WHO Framework Convention. Tobacco Control (FCTC) regulates heated tobacco products and electronic nicotine delivery systems as well as tobacco products.
Ms. Bulakh is also an active member of Verkhovna Rada’s Public Health, Health Support and Health Insurance Commission. With her commitment, motivation, and strong support for public health initiatives, she was able to withstand fierce opposition from the tobacco industry and created a policy environment in which Ukraine could strengthen tobacco control legislation for the first time in nine years. These achievements further protect young people from the harmful effects of tobacco and nicotine products.
Postmortem Awareness – Dr. Mateusz Zatoński, Researcher, Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG), University of Bath, UK
Dr. Mateusz Zatoński, who died in January 2022 at the age of 34, is a talented scholar, and his policy information research has already had a significant impact. As a TCRG researcher at the University of Bath, he led a team to study the impact of the tobacco industry on national and global policies and developed ways to address this. His work on the UK Tobacco Business Interference Index prompted policy debates in delegated countries.
Dr. Zatoński’s passion for Eastern European social and political history, and his work with institutions in Poland and other EU countries, has brought a broad European perspective to his research. His work has had a major impact on Europe as a whole, through TCRG and through tobacco organization and product STOP and International Tobacco Control (ITC) projects.
Dr. Zatoński reveals efforts to undermine menthol law and circumvent the EU’s menthol flavor ban, highlighting the risks of new flavor products, especially to young people, and showing how the industry tried to use COVID. By doing so, we worked on the denormalization of the tobacco industry. 19 pandemics for its own purposes. Despite his death, his work continues to support tobacco control efforts in Europe and signal amendments to the law.
