HEALTH: Tobacco Treaty Becomes Priority for Anti-Smoking Movement

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

CHICAGO, Aug 11 2000 (IPS) - The international anti-smoking movement will be Geneva-bound in October in its quest to snuff out the worldwide reach of the tobacco industry.

For it is in that Swiss city that the World Health Organisation (WHO) will begin its initial hearings on the world’s first public health treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

And at this week’s 11th World Health Conference on Tobacco Or Health, being held here, anti-smoking activists from countries as far afield as South Africa to Malaysia underscored the need to map out a strategy to secure universal support for the FCTC.

“This treaty is very important to us. Many people feel it will serve as an important tool to combat the epidemic that the tobacco industry has been spreading,” said Dr. Yussuf Saloojee, the executive director of the South African National Council Against Smoking.

For Mary Assunta, spokeswoman for the Consumer Association of Penang, Malaysia, the treaty provides the best hope for governments in the developing world to take on the aggressive manner in which the tobacco multinational companies are marketing cigarettes.

“They cannot continue as if it is business as usual when they know what their products are doing to people,” she added. “The convention will compel them to be more accountable.”

And to make such inroads, she observed, the anti-smoking activists would have to descend on Geneva in large numbers. “The role of NGOs (non-governmental organisations) is crucial in making a difference in the convention process.”

A number of international participants among the 4,500 gathered here for the conference endorsed that view. What is more, they even expressed optimism that they have enough support. This stems from the level of interest shown the FCTC by important branches of governments in many countries, including the ministries of health, foreign affairs, finance, trade, agriculture, environment and justice.

“Such a level of involvement gives us hope in our battle against the tobacco giants,” admitted Emma Must, the international campaign manager for the British-based Action on Smoking and Health.

Thus far, she revealed, no government has tried to “wreck the treaty,” including tobacco-growing nations such as Brazil, Malawi and Zimbabwe. This treaty, which was unveiled last May at the World Health Assembly, will attempt to address such concerns as tobacco advertising and promotion, agricultural diversification of tobacco plantations, cigarette smuggling, taxes and subsidies.

The consequence of that for developing countries will be immense in terms of new policies they would have the liberty of implementing. For one, the FCTC will provide a road map for governments to tighten their national tobacco control programmes.

Furthermore, it will also enable governments to stall the penetration of their borders by the tobacco industry, and to launch awareness campaigns about “the strategies and tactics employed by the multinational tobacco companies” to get people hooked on to a habit that has death as its reward.

For those like Must and Dr. Solajee, equally important is the prospect of a multilateral development fund being established under the FCTC, thus enabling developing countries with poor infrastructure and resources the wherewithal to counter future attempts by the tobacco industry to flood their markets with cigarettes.

“This fund will make the treaty more effective,” observed Must.

Added Dr. Solajee, “A financial mechanism is needed to give this treaty teeth. In addition to helping disadvantaged countries, it will also enable such procedures as on-going reporting and on- going monitoring.”

According to the WHO, the need for such a treaty has arisen due to a glaring reality – tobacco has evolved into a global killer. In reports released here this week, the Geneva-based health body expressed particular concern about the rate at which tobacco- related illnesses and deaths are ravaging many developing countries.

Currently, for instance, the number of smokers is 1.1 billion, “80 percent of them in low- and middle-income countries,” but that figure was expected to increase to 1.6 billion by 2030.

Furthermore, the WHO stated, the age at which people start smoking “appears to be falling – possibly the result of increased promotion (of cigarettes) aimed at children.”

And in this century, it added, about 1 billion people will die from smoking if it continues to spread unchecked, which will be “10 times the number killed by tobacco throughout the 20th century.”

For Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, the director-general of the WHO, the implications of these debilitating details are obvious. “Tobacco is not only a human tragedy. Tobacco also burdens our health systems.”

So the growing cry for a convention is timely, she affirmed. “The treaty will provide an international framework to address both national health policies and to control the global reach of big tobacco.”

In addition, she recognised another merit of the FCTC – the global exchange of knowledge. “For example, when tobacco companies confess in court in one country that they knew that their products causes cancer and was an addictive cause of death, that information will – thanks to the convention – be made available to people all over the world.”

Nevertheless, she admitted, the negotiating process due to get underway with the October public hearings “will not be easy in some countries.”

And for them, she offered a reminder about the manner in which the treaty should be perceived. “Like the convention to ban land mines, the tobacco convention also seeks to stop a killer.”