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CARICOM Ministers in Russia for health talks  

Two Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Ministers of Health have travelled here to participate in three major global health events on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), as the region steps up its preparation for the UN High Level Meeting on Chronic Disease prevention later this year.

Dr Leslie Ramsammy of Guyana and Donville Innis of Barbados and regional officials are among the 100 Health Ministers and other government representatives who have gathered at the World Trade Centre in Moscow to participate in the staging of the first World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Forum titled 'Addressing the challenge of Non-Communicable Diseases'.

They attended Wednesday's launch of the first WHO Global Status Report on NCDs, as well as the staging of the first two-day Global Ministerial Conference on Healthy Lifestyles and Non-Communicable Disease Control, which opened yesterday morning. . . .

A CARICOM statement said that those recommendations are in sync with the regional body's advocacy against NCDs and are implicit in the 15-point actions of the Port-of-Spain Declaration - Uniting to Stop Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases - to which CARICOM Heads of Government had committed since September 15, 2007 and which is now being implemented in the Caribbean.

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Ramsammy says tobacco use still “alarmingly high” ($$) 

In the fight against Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), tobacco use, which is one of the risk factors, is still at an alarmingly high level, Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy told the 21st Meeting of the CARICOM Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) which opened here on Friday morning.

He noted that the region’s progress towards meeting its obligations to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) was “slow at best,” according to a press release from the CARICOM Secretariat at Turkeyen. CARICOM member states had agreed to the implementation of the FCTC, …..

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Guyana joins lobby to totally ban cigarette ads  

Efforts to reduce cigarette smoking in Guyana has gained momentum with government and CARICOM health official agreeing to join lobbying efforts to greenlight a regional labeling standard.

According to the Guyana Chest Society, the Caribbean Tobacco Control Project regional team met in Guyana from October 5, for three days and had discussions with the Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, Minister of Health, as well as with Dr. Rudolph Cummings, Programme Manager, CARICOM Health Sector Development.

The team, in a statement yesterday, applauded “the efforts of both these Caribbean officials to lobby their colleagues to approve the CARICOM regional cigarette labelling standard.”

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Project Officer and GNBS at odds over Tobacco Standard  

Project Officer of the Guyana Chest Society, Eshwar Raghunath, has refuted statements by the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) that the controversial Tobacco Standard was not at the Tourism Ministry, but rather it was still at the GNBS.

However, Raghunath told Kaieteur News, yesterday, that he is not aware that the standard was still at the GNBS. The technical officers from the Office of the Director of the GNBS informed him (Raghunath) that the standard was forwarded to the Ministry of Tourism Industry and Commerce.

According to the Project Officer, he has received a correspondence from the Tourism Ministry explaining that the Ministry will give the Private Sector Commission another chance to express comments and suggestions about the standard.

Raghunath also noted that officials from the Ministry even went as far as taking the document to the Permanent Secretary of the Tourism Ministry in order to ‘speed up’ the process. . . .

In 2005, Guyana signed onto the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), where there are several articles within that treaty that addresses the control of tobacco as well as its demand and supply.

Since then, Governments had three years to implement the various principles of the treaty but Guyana is in breach of Article 11, which deals specifically with the packaging and labeling of tobacco products.

This article demands that governments implement pictorial health warnings on cigarette packages, but to date, this is still to be done in Guyana.

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Guyana to share US$627,000 for Caribbean Tobacco Control Project  

Guyana, Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago will be benefiting from approximately US$627,000 for the Caribbean Tobacco Control Project.

The Project is aimed at controlling and raising warning awareness of the effects of tobacco use in and around the Caribbean.

This information was revealed by the Guyana Caribbean Tobacco Control Project Officer and member of Guyana Chest Society, Eshwar Raghunath, at a Media Sensitisation Workshop on Tobacco Control.

The Workshop was intended to “arm the media with information as a vehicle aimed at exerting pressure on policy makers to implement stringent tobacco control interventions as implied by the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.”

The Caribbean Tobacco Control Project is funded by the Bloomberg Global Initiative

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On the line: Demerara Tobacco Company Limited Annual Report 2008  

The Annual General Meeting of the Demerara Tobacco Company Limited, the tobacco trading company was held on March 31, 2009 making it the first company with a calendar yearend to have presented its 2008 annual report to its shareholders. In fact its financial statements were signed off by the auditors within five weeks of the end of calendar year 2008, which is commendable, but with effectively one supplier and one customer the accounting workload is hardly demanding. The company saw sales increasing by 6.6% over 2007 and after tax profit increasing by 6.3%, an almost linear relationship. However, the rate of growth of sales has fallen over the past couple of years, when the increase in 2007 sales over 2006 was a more robust 16%. . . .

Guyana is a signatory to the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, but as the Minister of Health admitted in 2005, while smoking has been an issue in Guyana “for years nothing has really been done about it.” The company’s stated marketing strategy is to meet the “preferences of adults.” It would have been good to believe that nicotine abuse is a juvenile problem. Here are some statistics to prove otherwise.

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2 Govt agencies to ban smoking  

Two government agencies in Guyana are agreeing to ban smoking in the workplace as the South American country encourages smoke-free zones.

The Guyana Revenue Authority promises that all its employees on duty will comply. Commissioner General Khurshid Sattaur said Friday that he hopes visitors will do so as well.

The government operated Guyana Water Inc. adopted the same policy earlier this week.

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EDITORIAL: Double-edged sword 

Bans on smoking in public places that have been imposed in the US, UK, parts of Europe and other parts of the world, seem to be having the desired effect as have taxes on tobacco and its byproducts. There is therefore no reason why a concerted ongoing campaign could not see similar success here. The problem seems to be one of continuity.

A signatory to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) since 2005, Guyana through its Ministry of Health began its anti-smoking campaign some time ago by designating some public buildings, including schools ‘smoke-free zones.’ Then there was a lull in activities, though there is a revival in interest around World No Tobacco Day each year. There is a National Tobacco Council, but it is practically invisible. Instead the Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy, who has more than enough on his plate already, is seen spearheading each initiative and making every announcement.

While it is good that the leadership in stopping smoking comes from the very top, it will not be sustainable if it continues in this fashion.

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Tobacco, over-eating cause additional health problems 

Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy said tobacco, alcohol and over-eating are factors destroying people’s health.

Addressing a workshop, Dr. Ramsammy said tobacco is the only killer substance in the world that is legalised. “We have to fight against tobacco,” he said.

The Health Minister said all public places in the country should become smoke free zones. To this end, on May 1, all health facilities will be declared smoke free zones. There has also been a declaration by the Ministry of Education to make all schools, public and private, smoke free zones. The Minister also encouraged workplaces to become smoke free zones.

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RAM: On the Line - Annual Report - Demerara Tobacco Company Limited 2005 

Demerara Tobacco Company Limited, a subsidiary of British American Tobacco, p.l.c., buys a branded product from a fellow subsidiary, pays more than US$600,000 in 'royalties' to the parent company, has one single distributor and no more than fourteen employees and pays another US$1,000,000 for management services from fellow subsidiaries and technical and advisory services from the ultimate parent company. The company also has an average of in excess of another US$1,000,000 due from a related party on which it receives no interest.

The company will be holding its 72nd Annual General Meeting this coming Thursday to announce that despite the floods which 'hampered distribution', the company has increased its profits before tax by some 6% on an increase in sales of 2% (on a 3.5% increase in volume).

Last May, after the high-visibility Minister of Health returned from one of his overseas trips he announced to the press that anti-tobacco legislation, like Tarzan, would be 'coming soon'. One year later, there is no legislation and the company that controls 97% of the market announces that its sales of cigarettes have increased by 18,000,000 sticks!

One year after announcing that his ministry would be conducting a survey biennially, the company can boast of the huge success with its after-work lime and music competition promising original music or an iPod - hardly the sort of thing that attracts non-youths. . . .

presenting an extremely attractive return to the group. The attempt by the company to justify a royalty payment of G$130M, by stating that the product is manufactured to 'predetermined specifications' is hardly convincing even to a non-smoker who can buy the same product almost anywhere outside of Guyana. And while every company can and should determine its business model, paying US$1M, for management services when all the company does is bring in a product and sell it immediately to a sole distributor seems to defy business logic. That Business Page has been sharply attacked by the company for raising some of these very issues in the past ought not to make them less worthy of repetition particularly in the absence of reasonable justification. Surely even Guyanese shareholders must be willing to put aside their appreciation of good dividends in the broader fiscal and national interest.

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Guyana accedes to WHO Tobacco Control Convention 

MINISTER of Foreign Affairs, Rudy Insanally, on behalf of the Government of Guyana deposited Guyana’s Instrument of Accession to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control at a recently concluded high level plenary meeting in New York.

The convention was the 60th session of the United Nations General Assembly which sought to provide a framework for tobacco control measures to protect present and future generations from the devastating health, social, environmental and economic consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke.

A release from the Foreign Affairs Ministry yesterday stated that the Minister also deposited the Instrument of Ratification to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.

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Tobacco grip tightens 

Austria, Kiribati, Bolivia and Guyana are not hugely important in the overall scheme of things in motorsport, although Austria's Red Bull company is a useful source of funding for a large number of racers. The four countries have, however, recently signed the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and by doing so have raised the number of countries to have ratified the global ban on tobacco sponsorship to 83, which is just one country short of half of the 168 nations that signed the treaty. Each new signatory adds pressure to the big players who have not yet ratified the treaty, notably the United States of America.

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Anti-tobacco legislation coming soon 

Guyana will soon accede to the World Health Organi-sation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), says Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy.

Back from the 58th session of the World Health Assembly held in Geneva from May 16-25, Minister Ramsammy said the country has up to November to accept the treaty which will be international law in less than 90 days, following ratification by 40 countries in the past 17 months.

According to him, Foreign Affairs Minister Rudy Insanally will soon deposit an instrument of accreditation to the United Nations headquarters in New York as part of the process. Already, Ramsammy said, he has prepared a motion to take before the National Assembly. He noted that it would be on the order paper when the assembly meets at the next sitting.

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EDITORIAL: The cigarette scandal 

It is scandalous. Women the world over should be outraged. A study conducted by Harvard University's School of Public Health has found that the tobacco industry deliberately set out to get women addicted to smoking and considered using appetite suppressants and chocolate-flavoured cigarettes as a means of doing so. . . .

World No-Tobacco Day was observed this week, on May 31. At the end of February, WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control came into force, making tobacco control legally binding on the 40 countries that had signed on prior to November 2004. Guyana, strangely, was not among those countries. And stranger still it has not yet signed on despite all the recent rhetoric about smoke-free zones. When he announced Guyana's intention to adopt the treaty last week Saturday, the Minister of Health also mentioned plans to implement a programme for people desirous of quitting. Given the revelations of the Harvard research, one would hope that a special effort would be made to target women. One would also hope that this could come on stream almost immediately, since it will be an internal health initiative, which will not require a treaty.

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Armed bandits hijack cigarette bus at Skeldon -grab $1.3M, fire at victims 

Two armed bandits in a daring daylight robbery on Monday hijacked a minibus belonging to Edward B. Beharry and Company Ltd and escaped with $1.3 million at Skeldon, Corentyne, Berbice.

The bus usually sells cigarettes five times a week in different areas on the Corentyne and was robbed around 1.45 pm as the employees were about to deposit their daily sales at a bank at Skeldon.

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