HEALTH-ASIA: Tobacco Firms Move East as West Tightens Controls

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Nov 18 1997 (IPS) - More people are smoking and drinking alcohol in Asia than ever before with tobacco and alcohol transnationals turning their sights on Asia as the most lucrative market, globally, as sales slump in the West.

“Asia has the unhealthy distinction of having the greatest variety of tobacco products. In some countries over 100 brands of cigarettes are available,” said Dr. Uton Muchtar Rafei, regional chief of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Colombo.

Rafei, the regional director for South-East Asia, was speaking at a five-day WHO regional consultation on tobacco and alcohol, which opened in the Sri Lankan capital Monday.

Developing countries account for one-third of the three million people who die annually from smoking and if current consumption levels continue, some seven million more are likely to perish out of 10 million globally, in the next 30 to 40 years.

New evidence shows that about half of all persistent smokers, many of whom are women, are eventually killed by tobacco use. It is estimated that more than 200 million women worldwide are smokers.

The problem is particularly acute in the Asian region, where eight of the 10 member countries meeting in Colombo produce tobacco commercially. In 1993, the estimated production of tobacco here was a little more than one million metric tonnes.

The Colombo consultation is the first-ever forum on alcohol and tobacco in the region, and is jointly organised by the WHO and the Colombo-based Alcohol and Drug Information Centre (ADIC).

An ADIC statement on the need to curb excessive alcohol and tobacco use, noted that “what is really disturbing is that there is a reverse trend where the alcohol giants in developed countries are focussing their attention on the less developed nations in Africa and Asia for their ‘thirsting markets’, leading to a marked increase in the availability as well as the consumption of imported liquor in local markets.”

It said that tobacco exports have increased to the two regions due to the fact that there was lower consumption in the West where people were becoming more health conscious.

ADIC said the purpose of the Colombo parley was to review the current situation regarding alcohol and tobacco use and the implications for health promotion, to share experiences of successful health initiatives as well as identify health promotion activities and areas of research for control.

Rafei said that with control pressures on tobacco industries in developed countries and such tobacco consumer countries as China, this region was emerging as a lucrative market for tobacco promotion. Already tobacco industries have predicted sales increases of 33 percent between 1991 and 2000 in Asia.

In some countries, the WHO regional director said drinking had undergo a change from its ritualistic status to a form of entertainment, and is no longer regarded as unacceptable behaviour.

“The result is that today, the real per capita alcohol consumption in the region matches that of European countries,” he noted.

Rafei advocated the urgency for a comprehensive and all- embracing public policy on tobacco and alcohol control in all countries, saying “control policies with inputs from all relevant sectors should be dictated by health considerations rather than economic interests.”

But Sri Lanka’s Minister of Health Nimal Siripala de Silva said the government here had to strike a delicate balance between promoting alcohol and tobacco and curbing its use.

“The government has a dual responsibility — on the one hand it collects taxes on alcohol and cigarette sales. On the other hand we are responsible for eradicating this menace,” he told the meeting.

Taxes on cigarettes and alcohol bring in substantial revenues to the Sri Lankan government. Silva said Sri Lanka had taken the lead role in the appointment of a Presidential Task Force on the use of tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs in April this year.

The group of experts submitted its report last week, presenting a national policy on the issue and listing out various ways of ending the menace. The group, which included eminent doctors, psychiatrists and counsellors, recommended a total ban on all forms of direct and indirect alcohol and tobacco.

It suggested that smoking should be banned in all public places, measures should be taken to avoid portrayal of these

substances in attractive and promotional ways in media accessible to children, and restriction of access to alcohol and tobacco products, especially to children.

The group recommended that steps should be taken to safeguard the right of non-drug users to live in an environment free of contamination from tobacco smoke.

The state-run Daily News in an editorial said that “indirect advertising” should be interpreted to mean the current covert practice of tobacco firms to gain social acceptance by sponsoring even painting exhibitions and cultural programmes.

“The rationale should be to rob these firms of all forms of respectability,” the editorial said. But minister de Silva, while praising the recommendations of the group, said some of its suggestions may be hard to implement.

“We have a democratic political structure and it would be difficult through legislative means to enforce a ban on advertising …,” he said, while urging participants to find ways, other ways to curb drinking and smoking.