HEALTH: Anti-Smoking Lobby Optimistic about Support for Tobacco Control Treaty

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

MEXICO CITY, Apr 28 2001 (IPS) - The international anti- smoking movement has a few reasons to feel optimistic about securing sufficient support for the world’s first public health treaty that seeks to control the global use of tobacco.

The hope springs from the recent commitments given by a number of countries in Asia and Africa to endorse the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the international treaty championed by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

“The majority of Asian countries are in support of the FCTC,” says Mary Assunta, media officer for the Malaysian-based Consumer Association of Penang. “Several countries such as Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Australia and Mongolia already have good tobacco control legislation in place.”

In March this year, 21 African countries came out in support of the FCTC during a high-level meeting held in Johannesburg, South Africa. On that occasion, African governments were unequivocal about the global need to expose the schemes pursued by the tobacco industry to undermine the current drive for a tough anti-tobacco treaty.

They urged the member states of the WHO to “put in place a global mechanism to monitor and disseminate information about tobacco industry activities aimed at diluting the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, in order to counteract such activities”.

According to Judy Wilkenfeld, who heads the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, a Washington D.C.-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), the momentum reflects “sufficient political will among countries” to push for a strong treaty.

The anti-smoking movement will get an opportunity to test whether or not these endorsements bear merit commencing Apr. 30, when the second round of intergovernmental negotiations get underway for a week-long session in Geneva to craft the language for the FCTC.

Anti-smoking activists from across the world will be converging at the negotiation site to ensure that those who have been vocal about the public health problems stemming from tobacco products make a “loud and clear” case, affirms Wilkenfeld.

Such a vocal presence is imperative to ensure the language of the treaty is specific, she adds. “Otherwise, we are doomed to end up with a ‘feel good’ treaty which says much, but accomplishes little. This would only benefit the tobacco industry, not global public health.”

According to the Framework Convention Alliance (FCA), a group of over 100 NGOs from over 35 countries committed to achieving a strong FCTC, the current draft of the anti-tobacco convention requires “modifications” and “improvements” if it is to achieve the goal of reducing the death and disease caused by tobacco.

Of particular concern to the FCA are aspects of the draft dealing with tobacco control measures, issues related to the commercial interests of the tobacco industry against public health factors and the provisions on advertising and promotion of tobacco products.

In a briefing paper prepared for the second round of negotiations, it argues that the FCTC should give priority to the “public health measures to deal with the tobacco epidemic” over any commercial considerations.

“There should be no question of a trade-off between human life and the commercial interests of the tobacco industry,” it asserts. “The FCTC should include language specifying that in the event of a conflict between the convention or any of its protocols and the application of another international agreement to tobacco, the FCTC shall take precedence.”

That line of thinking stems from the facts anti-smoking activists have to bolster their arguments, like studies done by the WHO, which reveals that tobacco products currently kills four million people every year.

According to the WHO, furthermore, “this silent epidemic could kill 10 million by 2030, over 70 percent of them in the developing world”, up from 50 percent today.

What is more, reveals the UN health agency, in this century about a billion people will die from smoking if it continues to spread unchecked, which will be “10 times the number killed by tobacco through the 20th century”.

Through the FCTC, the WHO is seeking to establish an international legal instrument that “will circumscribe the global spread of tobacco products”. In addition to the bans on advertising and promotion of tobacco products, the WHO also wants tough measures against cigarette smuggling, smoking in public places and preventing young people from starting to smoke.

Furthermore, it also advocates the need to increase taxes on tobacco products, reduce subsidies and encourage agricultural diversification of tobacco plantations.

Activists know they face an uphill battle during the forthcoming meetings. They have set themselves the task of convincing the undecided countries to sign on and prevent countries opposed to the treaty from weakening its language.

“Some governments, such as Japan and China, are directly involved in the tobacco business and tend to represent the views of the tobacco industry,” says Assunta. During the first round of negotiations held last October, “it appeared that these two countries were pushing for a weaker convention with no specificities and little teeth,” she adds.

The stance of the US government under the new administration of George W. Bush will be closely followed in this regard, too. Bush has just been urged by the American Lung Association to “take the lead in fighting tobacco- related diseases and death” during the sessions in Geneva.

“The fault-lines in these negotiations are not between developed and developing countries,” says Wilkenfeld. “Many countries are simply uninformed about the potential economic and public health benefits of the treaty, and it will be our job to inform them.”

That will also mean Wilkenfeld and other activists taking on the arguments of the tobacco industry, since the countries holding a brief against the treaty have raised “many of the same arguments that the tobacco industry raise”.

According to her, these arguments state that the voluntary codes pursued by the tobacco industry are sufficient policing and that tobacco advertising is only designed to cause current smokers to switch to a new brand.

The FCA is in no mood to let such arguments prevail, for in its view the FCTC “represents an extraordinary opportunity to formulate an international consensus on the gravity of the tobacco epidemic”.