News

A new study led by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory shows that chemicals lingering in indoor spaces where smoking took place can put whole households at risk. Researchers found that the concentrations of toxic chemicals that linger indoors after cigarettes have been smoked can result in exposure that exceeds health guidelines established by the State of California.

Since their arrival, disposable electronic cigarettes have been completely changing the nicotine consumption market and their sales are growing exponentially: the increase in sales could reach 2,200% in 2022! The consumption of these products by young people continues to spread massively in an invisible and dangerous way. Not only is our legal framework completely behind the times, but our public health policies are totally inadequate to deal with these very rapid developments.

Cities must be inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable; this is the goal of the eleventh Sustainable Development Objective of the United Nations. However, smoking imperils the realisation of this goal on several fronts.

A new study by Faselis et al. (2022), has highlighted the unmet need in lung cancer screening, as their research has shown that a 10-fold high lung cancer risk has been found among light and former heavy smokers for whom computer tomography (CT) scan screening is not recommended.[i]

Who keeps telling smokers they can’t quit without help? For decades there have been far more ex-smokers than smokers, and an estimated 75% of smokers quit without drugs or professional help.

Snus is a smokeless tobacco product that has gained popularity among youth. Snus produces a similar nicotine dependence to smoking and has no advantages over cigarettes or other electronic nicotine delivery products, due to the risk of inducing, maintaining, and reinforcing combustible cigarette consumption, as well as major risks to oral health.

Flavoured Puff Bars are worsening the youth vaping epidemic and are currently flooding the Swiss market.

Puff bars: they are new, very strong in dosage, allow hidden consumption and are becoming increasingly popular among young people precisely for these reasons. AT Switzerland has now identified new products of these disposable electronic cigarettes whose nicotine content violates legal regulations and which can also be easily ordered via the Internet without age checks. This is a worrying trend. AT Switzerland is therefore sounding an alert to the federal authorities.

At the heart of the United Nations' eighth Sustainable Development Goal is the promotion of sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth and decent work for all. The tobacco industry employs about 100 million people worldwide; however, most of these jobs are not dream jobs.

The 7th UN Sustainable Development Goal calls for universal access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy services. The tobacco industry challenges the achievement of this goal in several ways.

Truth Initiative’s recently published report looking at tobacco imagery in entertainment, “While You Were Streaming: Nicotine on Demand,” finds that as young people watched more video content than ever before in 2020, pervasive smoking and vaping imagery lit up their screens.

Tobacco's influence extends to many sectors of society and threatens the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Read our latest post on how the production, consumption and disposal of tobacco and nicotine products threatens and pollutes our waters.

In cooperation with Medicus Mundi Switzerland (MMS), the leading network of international health cooperation and global health, AT Switzerland addresses in an online bulletin the crimes of the tobacco industry in the global South and why they endanger the goals of the 2030 Agenda.

In a new policy brief, the World Heart Federation (WHF) is calling on governments to introduce stricter regulations on e-cigarettes and greater oversight of marketing and sales strategies to stop the e-cigarette epidemic.

Tobacco's influence impacts many areas of society and threatens the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Read our latest post on how tobacco threatens gender equality.

""Vaping: The real dollars behind fake consumer organisations" is a newly-published investigation by “Le Monde” and “The Investigative Desk” (Netherlands) that reveals the alliance between the tobacco lobby and the networks of American oil tycoons to prevent regulations on electronic cigarettes.

Switzerland comes in an inglorious 79th place (out of 80) in the new 2021 Tobacco Lobby Index, only just ahead of the Dominican Republic. Once again it becomes clear: the tobacco industry interferes massively in Swiss politics in order to be able to freely market and sell its deadly and harmful products.

New analyses from Australia and the USA show that there are countless chemical components in e-liquids and e-vapour, some of which are of concern. They thus confirm older analyses and point to possible further problematic substances. They also make it clear that most of the existing chemical components have not yet been identified and their hazard potential is unknown.

The right to quality education is at the heart of the UN's fourth sustainable development goal. Yet tobacco use puts its achievement at risk. Read more in our new contribution to our series of articles!

Now it is clear: With the weak Tobacco Products Act, Switzerland will have the weakest rules for tobacco advertising in Europe. Ratification of the WHO Framework Convention (FCTC) is thus made impossible, as Federal Councillor Alain Berset emphasised.

Many forget that tobacco plays a crucial role in tackling climate change and the future of agriculture and food security. Currently, tobacco is grown in over 125 countries as a cash crop, over an estimated area of 4 million hectares.

The Swiss Parliament will debate the Tobacco Products Act this week. In an interview with Le Temps, our director Luciano Ruggia explains how politicians play into the hands of the tobacco lobby and do not consider tobacco as a public health problem.

Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death and disease worldwide. Read more in our new contribution to our series of articles!

The Devil’s Playbook: Big Tobacco, Juul, and the Addiction of A New Generation

On 26 August 2021, the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) announced a ban on the sale of more than 55 000 flavoured electronic cigarette products because they pose a health risk to young people. In Switzerland, all of these products are freely available without any control regarding their chemical content, without any government restriction on sales to minors and without any taxation.

In a new article in the Schweizerische Ärztezeitung (SÄZ), Luciano Ruggia, Managing Director of AT Switzerland, sheds light on the variety of new tobacco and nicotine products and their consequences for young people and public health in Switzerland.

Taxing tobacco products is the most effective means of controlling tobacco use, so the tobacco industry uses a range of sophisticated pricing strategies to undermine the preventive effect of tax increases.

The canton of Valais extends the protection against second-hand smoke and the ban on advertising tobacco products. Four questions to Alexandre Dubuis of Promotion santé Valais regarding the new ordinance, which came into force on 1 July 2021.

The Swiss Association for Tobacco Control has a new appearance. Alongside the modernisation of the logo, the focus is also on the newly designed website. This new corporate design strengthens the positioning of AT Switzerland.