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• Barbados to host meeting on tobacco surveillance and policy development  

Over 50 delegates from across the region are expected to converge in Barbados for the Caribbean Sub-regional Meeting on Tobacco Surveillance and Policy Development, slated for November 16 to 20.

The meeting, a collaborative effort among the Pan-American Health Organisation - Office of Caribbean Program Coordination and the Tobacco Control Team Washington DC; the Office of Smoking and Health - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention USA; and Barbados' Health Ministry, will look at the implementation of Articles 5.3 and 13 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

Article 5.3 of the FCTC addresses "Protection of Policies from Commercial and Other Vested Interests of the Tobacco Industry", while Article 13 examines "Tobacco Advertising, Promotion and Sponsorship".

The forum will also assess the use of tobacco surveillance data for the development of effective and evidence-based tobacco control policies.

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Banning of smoking in public spaces endorsed 

A recommendation for the banning of smoking on public spaces as a public good and regional goal has been endorsed by Caricom Ministers of Health.

This as the region intensifies its efforts to tackle Non-Communicable Diseases, under the Port of Spain Declaration on Uniting in the fight against NCDs.

The endorsement was given at a meeting of the Caucus of Ministers of Health, in Geneva Switzerland last month.

The Health Ministers also re-affirmed their commitment to the goals and time lines embodied in the Framework Convention

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• MULLER: Right to light up  

Nazma muller talks to managing director of West Indian Tobacco Company Jean-Pierre du Coudray, a graduate of the University of Western Ontario, Canada, who feels that legislation for tobacco use should also protect smokers, and producers.

Q: Do you smoke?

A: Yes, but it's not because I work here. I've been smoking since I was 22. It's my choice. I was smoking for nine years, before I started working here. It's certainly not a prerequisite for working at Witco. In fact, less than 20 per cent of our employees smoke. In 2006, we discontinued a policy where every employee who smoked used to get, depending on their grade, anything between four to eight cartons of cigarettes a month. This is in line with our responsible approach-if you're an adult and you want to smoke, you have to go out there and buy your cigarettes like everybody else. . . .

Compared to the US and the UK, cigarettes are very cheap in T&T. How does Witco do it?

I wouldn't say they're cheap. They're average. In Guyana and Suriname, they're cheaper than here. What happened is we closed our factories in Jamaica, Guyana and Suriname, and that capacity was transferred to Witco. We brought in high-tech machines from Germany, so now we're much more efficient in terms of economies of scale.

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EDITORIAL: All-out war being waged on tobacco 

AT ALMOST the same time Barbadians were hearing that a project officer, Wayne Hunte, had been appointed through a grant from the Bloomberg Global Initiative in partnership with four non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to keep an eye on package warnings on tobacco products sold in CARICOM countries, the world was being told of an even . . .

It will be the job of Hunte to ensure tobacco products, particularly in Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, carry the appropriate warnings about tobacco being dangerous to health.

Four NGOs - the Heart Foundation of Jamaica, the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Barbados, the Trinidad & Tobago Cancer Society and the Guyana Chest Society - are all partners in the Bloomberg-funded two-year project.

Hunte summed up his task as eventually getting the governments in targeted countries to speak with one voice about putting warnings on tobacco products.

It will be interesting to see if and how the Bloomberg-Gates anti-smoking campaign will reach us and how effective it might be.

A first step in this direction is to ban smoking in public places and calls have been growing for this throughout the world.

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EDITORIAL: Towards healthy lifestyles 

IT IS HEARTENING to note that thousands of medical practitioners, nutritionists and a wide range of other health care providers, including Barbadians, are swelling the ranks of lobbyists in favour of adopting healthy lifestyles.

Last Wednesday, it was reported that two Americans are combining to contribute at least US$500 million (BDS$1 billion) to developing countries in a global fight against tobacco-induced diseases.

This trend must also gladden the hearts of members of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Barbados (HSFB), one of a group of regional non-governmental organisations (NGOs), whose campaigns on disease avoidance and treatment enjoy generous support from leading professionals. The news must also greatly encourage civic agencies in Barbados . . . .

Meanwhile, anti-tobacco campaigner, retired medical practitioner Dr Tony Gale successfully led a local campaign to cut consumption of that substance, even before larger countries in North America, Britain and Europe, were able to claim similar progress.

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Campaign against Chronic Diseases Set for the Caribbean 

A major new campaign to fight chronic disease in the Caribbean is getting underway in an effort to stem "the worst epidemic of chronic diseases like heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease in the Americas," with the participation of heads of government.

Government leaders want to work together to reduce risk factors such as obesity, unhealthy food choices, physical inactivity, high cholesterol and tobacco use, which contribute to making chronic diseases the leading causes of death in Caribbean countries, according to the Pan American Health Organization's Dr. James Hospedales.

PAHO and the Caribbean Community organized a historic summit, "Stemming the Tide of Non-communicable Diseases in the Caribbean, hosted by the Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago, the Hon. Patrick Manning, to launch the watershed regional campaign against chronic diseases. . . .

"That we are meeting as Heads of Government on this matter indicates the priority that CARICOM has placed on the topic," Prime Minister Manning said, noting that tobacco taxes were a good initial step but that a comprehensive public education program on lifestyle management, in partnership with the media, is also needed.

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Higher taxes for alcohol and tobacco  

Caribbean governments say they will increase taxes on tobacco and alcohol to cut the cost on their health budgets to treat diseases triggered by those products.

They also agreed at to limit or eliminate smoking in public places, ban the sale, advertising and promotion of tobacco products to children and insist on manufacturers putting effective warning labels on their products.

It's just one of the commitments given by regional leaders who attended the first Summit on Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases which took place in Trinidad on Saturday September 15th.

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• World No-Tobacco Day in LAC: RIACT Launched 

Brazil's Health Minister, José Gomes Temporão, today announced the launch of the Ibero-American Tobacco Control Network (RIACT - Rede Ibero-Americana de Controle do Tabagismo in Portuguese, Red Ibero-Americana de Control del Tabaquismo in Spanish) to bring together the tobacco control authorities of (Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking) Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) with those of Spain and Portugal to cooperate, coordinate and collaborate in the implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

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• Investigators say cigarette butt likely caused fatal cruise ship fire 

A discarded cigarette butt was the likely cause of a fatal fire on a cruise ship in the Caribbean, accident investigators say.

Britain's Marine Accident Investigation Branch said in a report that the March 23 fire aboard the Star Princess was probably sparked by a cigarette that ignited combustible materials on a cabin balcony.

The blaze spread to almost 300 cabins on the Bermuda-registered ship, which was sailing from Grand Cayman to Montego Bay, Jamaica. One American passenger died and 13 other passengers were treated for smoke inhalation. The investigators' report found that the balconies' polycarbonate partitions, polyurethane deck tiles and plastic furniture were highly combustible and produced large quantities of thick black smoke when burned. The report said international sea safety regulations would be tightened in the wake of the fire.

The investigation branch said the ship's owner, Carnival Corp, was taking steps to improve safety and that the International Maritime Organisation would consider proposed amendments to an agreement governing ships at sea in December.

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• Anti-smoking advocates calling for smoking ban at cricket World Cup 

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados A Barbadian health group is proposing that smoking be banned at all 12 venues for next year's cricket World Cup.

National Committee for Prevention of Alcoholism and Drug Dependency director Victor Roach said he's been lobbying tournament officials for more than a year for a complete smoking ban.

"It is clearly spelt out in the terms and conditions of that there will be designated smoking areas," Roach said Thursday. "(But) we are calling for the event to be totally smoke-free."

Advocates are also urging governments to enact legislation to prohibit smoking at the tournament. . . .

Nine countries -- Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana --will host the March 13-April 18 event.

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New report calls for smoke-free environment 

?There is no risk-free level of exposure to second-hand smoke.?

This excerpt from a recent report from the Surgeon General of the United States has added to arguments put forward by the National Committee for the prevention of Alcoholism and Drug Dependency, for smoke-free public places in Barbados. . . .

President of the local association, Pastor Victor Roach has stated that it is more imperative than ever that ?Barbadian and Caribbean leaders & need to be reminded that second-hand smoke is a health hazard for all people?.

?We now understand that breathing second-hand smoke for even a short time can damage cells and set *the cancer process in motion, not to mention trigger an asthma attack,? said Roach. . . .

This, Roach stated, is a clear support of his association?s call for a smoke-free environment for next year?s International Cricket Council?s (ICC) Cricket World Cup. ?Some persons advocate smoking and non-smoking sections,? said Roach, ?obviously this needs to be revised.?

Saying that that is more important than having ratified the framework Convention on Tobacco Control, he opined that Caribbean countries need to adopt legislation to ban smoking in public places and workplaces. Roach also called for those Caribbean countries that have not ratified the framework convention to ?get on board?.

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Sandals, Beaches kick butts, ban smoking on May 1  

Sandals and Beaches Resorts go smoke-free May 1 in all enclosed areas, including nightclubs, bars, restaurants, lobbies, conference facilities and retail shops.   Smoking will be permitted outdoors and in designated rooms in each of the resorts.

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Woman Survives Deadly Cruise Ship Fire. 

This is the amazing of Mary Jo Dean of Kahoka Missouri and how she survived that deadly day.

24 hours before the fire Mary Jo says she shared one of her fears with her cousin.

" I said you know it'd be something if somebody would be smoking on this and maybe flip a cigarette, thinking it could go right in the ocean but of course you decks went out drop down , went out drop down. That worried me, the cigarettes worried me. I worried about that.

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Deconstructing a conglomerate 

Last week's sale of Sans Souci Hotel by Carreras Group represents a major but not the final stage in the de-conglomeration of the cigarette-led group that once spanned tobacco and coffee farming, financial services, printing, agro-processing, manufacturing, retailing and funds management. That final stage will come before year-end when the Carreras Group will totally cease cigarette manufacturing in Jamaica, having already transferred the bulk of that operation to Trinidad and Tobago.

By year-end therefore, the once revered conglomerate will become a distributor of cigarettes in Jamaica, and a manager of the billions of dollars in cash it now holds mainly in government paper.

"We (Carreras) are almost there," says managing director Michael Bernard, without any apparent sense of regret. "By the end of November we will have transformed the company into a distribution and marketing company."

Michael Bernard. by the end of November we will have transformed Carreras into a distribution and marketing company . . .

Trinidad and Tobago, emerged the favourite location around which British America Tobacco (BAT) - Carreras' parent-decided a decided a decade ago to consolidate its regional operation, because of its geography, and technology.

It was therefore no surprise when earlier this year, Carreras announced that it would, on a phased basis, altogether discontinue cigarette manufacture in Jamaica, and would transfer that side of its business to T&T where BAT had already consolidated its regional production, and where the cigarettes would benefit from economies of scale, and modern production facilities.

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NCPADD stepping with smoke free campaign 

THE National Commit-tee for the Prevention of Alcoholism and Drug Dependency (NCPADD) is continuing its campaign for a smoke free Cricket World Cup in 2007 and is taking the message across the region.

According to president of NCPADD, Mr. Victor Roach, such support presents not only a platform on which they can continue to campaign for a smoke free event, but it also conveys to the regional community and the international constituency that it is not just one country or organisation that is interested in the notion.

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