Reduced Risk Products – Bring Back Smoking Freedom

Light seen through the tunnel: 80% of tobacco tax to be cut by the Australian opposition, if implemented reducing cigarette prices by AUS $25 and legalising vapes

6 Sep 20267 Sep 2026

Australia along with New Zealand are the two countries in the world where cigarettes are most expensive than anywhere else in the world, with one packet of cigarettes costing the…

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Tobacco and Vapes Act notably does not restrict vaping from future generations of adults not allowed to purchase tobacco

24 May 202627 May 2026

The recently legislated generational tobacco purchase ban with the Tobacco and Vapes Act that gained Royal Assent on the 29th of April does not ban future generations of adults from…

Industry News…

Tobacco and Vapes Act, until recently being a Bill, cleared through parliament and awaiting Royal Assent

23 Apr 202624 May 2026

The incremental tobacco purchase ban and consequent gradual phasing out of all tobacco sales in the UK contained in the Tobacco and Vapes Act previously a Bill, has cleared its…

Healthcare News…

More people in the UK vape than smoke for the first time

13 Nov 202513 Nov 2025

Britain is often known, perhaps even notoriously, for its anti-normal ways of doing things, such as driving on the left side of the road and using an outstanding system of…

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Australia follows Canada mandating individual cigarette stick health warnings

18 Jun 202518 Jun 2025

Since last summer for certain types of cigarettes and from this summer for the rest, Canada is requiring that health warnings are printed on each individual cigarette stick drawn out…

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ASH, Cancer Research UK and RCP urge new Labour government to rewrite the defunct “Tobacco and Vapes Bill”

12 Jul 202420 Aug 2024

Britain's anti-smoking groups and medical associations have sent a letter to England's newly elected Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and his health secretary Wes Streeting, seeking to raise the issue…

Healthcare News…

Australian Greens achieve compromising vape legalisation

8 Jul 20248 Jul 2024

The Green Party in Australia passed an amendment to the law banning e-cigarettes and their use without a doctor's prescription, and from October e-cigarettes whose sale and use without a…

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Tobacco and Vapes bill committee “undemocratic” according to the UKVIA

9 May 202410 May 2024

Over the last few months since the vaping consultation which led to the proposed ban on disposables, we have tried to engage with the government on numerous occasions to present…

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Tobacco and Vapes bill passed its second reading with 383 yes and 67 no’s

16 Apr 202428 May 2024

According to the tobacco and vapes bill drafted under Rishi Sunak's initiative, which was voted today by the House of Commons, adults born after 2009 will not be eligible to…

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Second reading of Tobacco and Vapes Bill set as 16th of April – FOREST’s reaction to developments

24 Mar 202425 Mar 2024

During a period and time that marks the 20th and sad anniversary of the world's first smoking ban in Ireland in 2004, which corresponds to workplaces which are almost all…

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Retiring ASH director praises the “extinction of smoking in the UK” as Tobacco and Vapes Bill goes through parliament

20 Mar 202420 Mar 2024

As promised earlier in the year by the prime minister Rishi Sunak, parliament has started debating the catastrophic Tobacco and Vapes Bill that includes a generational ban on tobacco preventing…

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Tobacco prices remain unaffected until October 2026 with the Chancellor’s Spring Statement

6 Mar 20246 Mar 2024

The Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's spring statement of the budget for 2024 has left tobacco prices and excise, fuel duty and alcohol duty unaffected until October 2026, freezing those prices until…

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Generational smoking ban consultation responses disregarded on the basis of their origin and affiliation

5 Mar 20249 Apr 2024

In a healthy democracy and conversational environment all views and opposing views must be considered and all opinions are valid. We agree to disagree and listen and consider the opposing…

Healthcare News…

Smoking ban “the only measure that can give the population more years of life” according to Spain’s health minister

24 Feb 2024

"We must look at the law again because we cannot turn our backs on the only measure that can give the population more years of life and a better quality…

Reduced Risk Products

European Commission taken to European Court of Justice over heated tobacco flavour ban

26 Oct 202326 Oct 2023

The European Commission's attempt to restrict the sale of flavoured heated tobacco products will be referred to the European Court of Justice by Ireland's Supreme Court. PJ Carroll & Company and Nicoventures Trading, two companies that market…

Healthcare News…

The WHO refuses to discuss tobacco harm reduction in forthcoming antismoking conference

13 Oct 202313 Oct 2023

The WHO is excluding discussion on tobacco harm reduction from happening in its forthcoming 10th antismoking conference to be held in Panama City between the 20th and 25th of November,…

Industry News…

Antismoking proponents approaching Rishi Sunak for generational endgame of tobacco to come to the UK

23 Sep 202324 Sep 2023

Anti-smokers are approaching British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak near the end of the current five-year term in a bid to persuade him to ban smoking from the next generation of…

Healthcare News…

Brunel University in London says that the NHS would save £500 million if smokers converted to vaping

24 Aug 202311 Sep 2023

Brunel University in West London says that the NHS would save over £500 million if half of smokers converted to vaping also bringing up data for 10% of them. Read…

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One million Malaysians sign petition against generational endgame for tobacco

27 Jul 2023

More than 1 million Malaysians have signed up against the generational end game on smoking, a gradual and annual increase in the age limit for tobacco purchase by one year…

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Totalitarian state of Turkmenistan to become smoke-free by 2025

17 Jun 202317 Jun 2023

Turkmenistan's authoritarian leader launched an "unprecedented" anti-smoking crusade ordering the Central Asian country to become completely smoke-free within two years, coinciding with smoke-free targets more strictly set by some states to…

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Provocative Philip Morris statement claiming that cigarettes belong to museums

7 Jun 202310 Jun 2023

Philip Morris International overall manager Jacek Olczac told policymakers and media representatives and politicians that cigarettes belong in museums in a speech in the UnHerd Club in London. He urged…

Legalisation Campaigns…

Open letter to the Australian health minister from 42 scientists on the Australian vape ban

31 May 20231 Jun 2023

An open letter sent by 42 Australian and New Zealand scientists that include director and founder of the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association Colin Mendelsohn, to the Australian health minister…

Legalisation Campaigns…

Australian cigarette prices to rise from the 2023 budget announcement

10 May 202313 May 2023

The Australian Labor Party government is yet rising tobacco cigarette taxes for the next 3 years they will be in office. The Labour government announced a 5% tobacco tax increase…

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Australian government panic over vaping where it is still illegal

3 May 202314 Aug 2023

Back in 1963 Martin Luther King stated that "We have a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws". This is ever so true of the present situation in Australia where the…

Healthcare News…

US smoking rates went up in 2019 and 2021, but down in this and other recent years

1 May 202310 May 2023

The decline in smoking rates and a simultaneous rise in the use of electronic alternatives continues in the United States, where it was recorded for 2022 that only 11.3% of…

Healthcare News…

The British Health Minister WILL NOT increase the minimum age requirement to buy tobacco by one year every year

11 Apr 20237 May 2023

A new initiative by Britain's Department of Health in partnership with public health, called Swap to Stop, is distributing e-cigarettes to 1 million smokers to help them quit. The exact…

Healthcare News…

UK government taking additional law enforcement action on illegal underage sales of disposable vapes

10 Apr 202310 Apr 2023

The government is taking additional law enforcement action to ensure that the law that allows vaping and smoking to be sold exclusively to adults over 18 is followed by tillkeepers…

Reduced Risk Products

Teenagers under 18 illegally obtaining disposable vapes and vaping in the UK on the steep rise over just one year

7 Apr 20237 Apr 2023

The use of disposable vaporizers by teenagers in England who purchase them in violation of the law that requires them to reach adulthood to buy tobacco and nicotine products has…

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Greece, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Italy will not implement E.U. flavour ban on HTPs

11 Nov 2022

Proposal delegate act from E.U. health commissioner Stella Kyriakidou from Greece to ban all flavoured heated tobacco products except from tobacco flavours has not been objected by the European Parliament…

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The Forest Association at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham

8 Oct 202216 Oct 2022

British smokers' association Forest organized a round table on Monday 3 October at the Conservative Party Conference held during the recent days of October in Birmingham. Several issues were discussed…

Reduced Risk Products

Greece hosting scientific summit on THR comes first in OECD in smoking rates

22 Sep 202223 Sep 2022

The 5th Scientific Conference on mitigating the risk of smoking at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation in Athens, Greece, concluded today, Thursday 22/09, in which leading scientists from all over the…

Reduced Risk Products

First day progress on the 5th Scientific Summit on THR in Athens, Greece

22 Sep 202222 Sep 2022

The first day of the 5th Scientific Summit on tobacco harm reduction at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and its Cultural Centre in Athens, Greece, was completed on Wednesday 09/21. The…

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Greek health commissioner of the EC plans EU-wide flavour ban for heated tobacco products

21 Sep 202221 Sep 2022

The European Commission, amazed by the excessively positive performance of sales of electronic heating tobacco systems, set out to ban them in their flavoured form. Heating tobacco showed a vertically…

Reduced Risk Products

Marewa Glover at the Athens Tobacco Harm Reduction Scientific Summit

18 Sep 202218 Sep 2022

The 5th Scientific Summit on Tobacco Harm Reduction and its related control will be held at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation in Athens, Greece during the two-day period from Wednesday 21…

Reduced Risk Products

JUUL to be taken off the US market with the FDA rejecting its trading application

17 Jul 202217 Jul 2022

The infamous JUUL e-cigarettes are being tried by the US Food and Drug Administration to be removed from the US market by rejecting the applications by the company, which is…

Industry News…

Finland imposes plain tobacco packaging by including e-cigs in the logo ban

15 May 202230 Sep 2022

In Finland, smoking is allowed in secular centres provided there is a separate smoking area with adequate ventilation. Also, the minimum age for buying cigarettes is 16 years. From May…

Healthcare News…

Vaping proven as problematic as smoking for respiratory and heart problems

13 May 202215 May 2022

Smoking and the use of e-cigarettes while avoiding lung cancer are equated with smoking with regard to cardiorespiratory problems such as heart disease, asthma, pneumonia and COPD. proved to be…

Reduced Risk Products

Prevailing confusion over e-cigs in the Far East

7 May 202215 May 2022

The Philippine Ministry of Health is urging President Rodrigo Duterte to veto parliament's passage of an e-cigarette law that would legalize e-cigarettes by substituting smoking, which are currently banned until…

Healthcare News…

E-cig bans lifted while Australian study asserts on their effectiveness

13 Apr 20221 May 2023

From August 3, 2022, the sale and consumption of electronic smoking alternatives will be legal in Malaysia after persistent efforts by organizations, associations and unions to persuade the government to…