During the fifth world conference on non-smokers right at the George Washington University Law School, social activist Hemant Goswami was awarded the “Activist Award” for “Legal research and writing.” The global conference is organised every year to discuss strategies and legal innovation so as to maximising public interest by legal action. Hemant also made a presentation on the subject “Getting practical results through legal innovation” which was adjudged as the best presentation.

One of the leading global public health activists, Hemant Goswami has initiated the smoke-free campaigns in India and his efforts turned Chandigarh into the first smoke-free city anywhere in the third world.

Speaking on the occasion, Hemant said that once the science has unequivocally proved, and the framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) has endorsed that tobacco causes death and devastation, there was no reason to allow such a product to be marketed commercially with so little restrictions. “We have to think about phasing out tobacco and have to define a clear time-span and strategy to do so. The menace of tobacco can not go on for ever, especially when we clearly know that tobacco kills 5.2 million people globally every year and this century it is going to kill nearly a billion,” Hemant emphasised during his talk.

The award was presented by Professon John F. Banzhaf, professor of public interest laws and an expert in public litigation at the University of Washington Law School. John Banzhaf had brought legal action which required broadcasting stations to provide hundreds of millions of dollars of free broadcast time for anti-smoking messages. Subsequently, after founding Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) he helped drive cigarette commercials off the air, and started the non-smokers' rights movement by getting smoking bans on airplanes and in many other public places.

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For further information, please contact: - Burning Brain Society/ Mr. Hemant Goswami at +91-9417868044 E-Mail:-info@burningbrain.org

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