GENEVA: Next week’s global conference on tobacco control will consider what to do about the sheer volume of cigarette butts trashing the planet, with some recommending banning them completely.
“The best thing that we could see for the environment is getting rid of filters altogether,” Andrew Black, acting head of the secretariat of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), said Thursday.
Plastic cigarette filters are the world’s most littered item, leaching toxic chemicals into the environment and breaking down into microplastics — while doing very little for the smoker, the secretariat said.
The 11th conference of the parties to the FCTC is being held in Geneva from November 17-22.
The WHO warned Wednesday that the tobacco industry was trying to infiltrate and undermine the conference.
- Litter and pollution -
Black said that, among other topics, the gathering would look at the environmental damage wrought by the tobacco industry and its products.
“An estimated 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered each year worldwide, making them the most common form of litter on the planet,” he told reporters.
“These discarded butts are toxic and a significant source of plastic pollution, due to their filters, which do not biodegrade.”
Furthermore, plastic filters “don’t provide any meaningful increase in the safety of cigarettes,” he said.
Rudiger Krech, the WHO’s environment and climate change chief, said it was “high time to ban those plastics... because they are the highest pollutants in waters” and are “contaminated also with toxicants,” he told a press conference.
Ultimately, it will be down to countries what measures they want to take.
To date, around 180 states have ratified the FCTC, which came into effect in 2005.
The landmark treaty brought in a package of tobacco control measures, including picture warnings on cigarette packets, smoke-free laws and increased taxes.
- Death toll -
The conference will take decisions that will set the trajectory of the global tobacco epidemic for future generations, said Black.
He said more than seven million deaths a year were down to tobacco — an “entirely preventable” body count.
Other major agenda items include the “aggressive marketing” of tobacco products, as well as widespread concerns about the numbers of children being lured in to a life of addiction via new means of getting kids hooked.
More than 100 million people are vaping, including at least 15 million teens aged 13 to 15, according to the WHO’s first global estimate of e-cigarette use.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghrebreyesus said: “Although e-cigarettes are often promoted as safer alternatives to conventional tobacco products, there is no evidence of their net benefit for public health — but mounting evidence of their harm.”
- Infiltration attempts -
Tedros claimed Wednesday that the tobacco industry was motivated by “one thing only: generating profit.”
“We are aware of attempts by the tobacco industry to infiltrate and undermine” next week’s conference, he told journalists.
Benn McGrady, head of the WHO’s public health law and policies unit, said the tobacco industry was “lobbying like crazy” and “trying to sow division.”
He said their new products were being marketed as consumer products of harm reduction, but in fact bore characteristics that are “specifically attractive to children,” such as bright colors and sweet flavours.
Highlighting the “alarming rise in use among children” of e-cigarettes, he said the industry was launching new products on social media — “spaces in which children and young people shape their identities.”
WHO wants comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, including for e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches.
Tobacco conference to weigh up stubbing out cigarette butts
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Tobacco conference to weigh up stubbing out cigarette butts
- Next week’s global conference on tobacco control will consider what to do about the sheer volume of cigarette butts trashing the planet
Ukraine drops NATO goal as Trump envoy sees progress in peace talks
- The move marks a major shift for Ukraine, which has fought to join NATO as a safeguard against Russian attacks and has such an aspiration included in its constitution
BERLIN/KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky offered to drop Ukraine’s aspirations to join the NATO military alliance as he held five hours of talks with US envoys in Berlin on Sunday to end the war with Russia, with negotiations set to continue on Monday.
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said “a lot of progress was made” as he and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met Zelensky in the latest push to end Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War Two, though full details were not divulged.
Zelensky’s adviser Dmytro Lytvyn said the president would comment on the talks on Monday once they were completed. Officials, Lytvyn said, were considering the draft documents.
“They went on for more than five hours and ended for today with an agreement to resume tomorrow morning,” Lytvyn told reporters in a WhatsApp chat.
Ahead of the talks, Zelensky offered to drop Ukraine’s goal to join NATO in exchange for Western security guarantees.
The move marks a major shift for Ukraine, which has fought to join NATO as a safeguard against Russian attacks and has such an aspiration included in its constitution. It also meets one of Russia’s war aims, although Kyiv has so far held firm against ceding territory to Moscow.
“Representatives held in-depth discussions regarding the 20-point plan for peace, economic agendas, and more. A lot of progress was made, and they will meet again tomorrow morning,” Witkoff said in a post on X.
The talks were hosted by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who a source said had made brief remarks before leaving the two sides to negotiate. Other European leaders are also due in Germany for talks on Monday.
“From the very beginning, Ukraine’s desire was to join NATO, these are real security guarantees. Some partners from the US and Europe did not support this direction,” Zelensky said in answer to questions from reporters in a WhatsApp chat.
“Thus, today, bilateral security guarantees between Ukraine and the US, Article 5-like guarantees for us from the US, and security guarantees from European colleagues, as well as other countries — Canada, Japan — are an opportunity to prevent another Russian invasion,” Zelensky said.
“And it is already a compromise on our part,” he said, adding the security guarantees should be legally binding.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly demanded Ukraine officially renounce its NATO ambitions and withdraw troops from the about 10 percent of Donbas which Kyiv still controls. Moscow has also said Ukraine must be a neutral country and no NATO troops can be stationed in Ukraine.
Russian sources said earlier this year that Putin wants a “written” pledge by major Western powers not to enlarge the US-led NATO alliance eastwards — shorthand for formally ruling out membership to Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and other former Soviet republics.
Sending Witkoff, who has led negotiations with Ukraine and Russia on a US peace proposal, appeared to be a signal that Washington saw a chance of progress nearly four years after Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Under pressure from Trump to sign a peace deal that initially backed Moscow’s demands, Zelensky accused Russia of dragging out the war through deadly bombings of cities and Ukraine’s power and water supplies.
A ceasefire along the current front lines would be a fair option, he added.
‘CRITICAL MOMENT’
Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said it was a “good sign” Trump had sent his envoys while fielding questions in an interview with the ZDF broadcaster on the suitability of Witkoff and Kushner, two businessmen, as negotiators.
“It’s certainly anything but an ideal setup for such negotiations. That much is clear. But as they say, you can only dance with the people on the dance floor,” Pistorius said.
On the issue of Ukraine’s offer to give up its NATO aspirations in exchange for security guarantees, Pistorius said Ukraine had bitter prior experience of relying on security assurances. Kyiv had in 1994 agreed to give up its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal in exchange for territorial guarantees from the US, Russia and Britain.
“Therefore, it remains to be seen to what extent this statement Zelensky has now made will actually hold true, and what preconditions must be met,” Pistorius said.
“This concerns territorial issues, commitments from Russia and others,” he said, adding mere security guarantees, especially without significant US involvement, “wouldn’t be worth much.”
Britain, France and Germany have been working to refine the US proposals, which in a draft disclosed last month called for Kyiv to cede more territory, abandon its NATO ambitions and accept limits on its armed forces.
European allies have described this as a “critical moment” that could shape Ukraine’s future, and sought to shore up Kyiv’s finances by leveraging frozen Russian central bank assets to fund Kyiv’s military and civilian budget.
