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The ban on cigarette sponsorship for sports activities, especially football, will not be withdrawn by the government, deputy minister of Youth and Sports Datuk Razali Ibrahim told the Dewan Rakyat Thursday.
Razali said there will be no change in the government's commitment to support the World Health Organisation's (WHO) global ban on cigarette companies sponsoring any kind of sports activities under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
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A survey has found about 13 percent of first-time smokers in the country are junior high school students. Muhammad Syahril Mansyur, from the Surakarta Health Agency's respiratory illness division, said Thursday the finding showed an alarming growth rate of Indonesian smokers. The agency conducted the survey in five major cities across the country, including Surakarta in Central Java. . . .
The Indonesian anti-tobacco campaign has reportedly been deemed as ineffective as the government refuses to sign the international convention on tobacco control
The city government's stiff campaign against smoking here has gained global recognition for its commitment to promote smoke-free policies.
This, as the Global Smoke-free Partnership (GSP) recently announced its winners for this year, with the Davao City Anti-Smoking Task Force winning in the governmental body category.
In a statement sent to Manila Bulletin on Thursday through fax, GSP said the city's anti-smoking task force came out on top for its "exceptional leadership and commitment to further smoke-free policies by a governmental agency."
GSP is an international organization formed to promote effective smoke-free air policies worldwide. The partnership is a fusion of American Cancer Society and the Framework Convention Alliance to bring the World Hearth Federation and International Union Against Cancer and other organizations to advocate for and reinforce anti-tobacco policies.
When it comes to smoking, Indonesia remains the last paradise for a puff in Southeast Asia. Those addicted to cigarettes can openly light up in public places without worrying about tough anti-tobacco penalties found in the rest of the region.
This reality has been shaped by the power of local and multinational tobacco companies on the archipelago of some 224 million people.
At the finals for the recent ‘Mild Live Wanted 2009' countrywide talent contest, in the former colonial city of Bandung, competing musicians belted out their songs from around 3 p.m till midnight.
For Indonesia's small, yet vocal, anti-tobacco activists, these concerts - billed to promote local talent - offered more than music to fill their ears. They were the latest in a string of publicity drives of the powerful multinational tobacco company Philip Morris International (PMI) in the country. . . .
The prospect of more deaths from this ”smoking epidemic” has still to move Jakarta, which is still to sign the world's first public health treaty - the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which has been in force since early 2005.
By contrast, this treaty has been signed by Indonesia's nine neighbours in the region, which include Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. . . .
But in other forms of entertainment, the publicity for tobacco companies are more direct, revealed Kania during a telephone interview from Jakarta. ”There was a film for teenagers last year where one of the actresses, who is still in junior high school, was smoking in scenes.”
Such an effort to glamorise smoking goes to extremes, at times. ”There are so many scenes of people smoking in Indonesian movies where the camera even zooms in to show the cigarette brand,” adds Kania. ”There is no regulation like in other countries.”
It is little wonder why a regional anti-tobacco lobby has described Southeast Asia's largest country as a ”cash cow” for the tobacco industry.
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.
CHANGI Airport has put its weight behind a global airports group opposing a World Health Organisation (WHO) proposal to ban the sale of duty-free tobacco products on airport premises.
The Airports Council International (ACI), which groups 1,679 airports worldwide, including Changi, maintains that this move will hurt airport earnings, as well as penalise the travelling public.
The issue surfaced at the group's annual meeting recently, in response to suggestions made by the WHO that such a ban would stem the illegal trade in tobacco products.
Member airports agree that they will not stand for such a ban and will work with their respective governments to protect the interests of passengers and the rights of airports and retailers.
This was one of several resolutions approved at the end of the ACI's two-day gathering in Kuala Lumpur last week.
Brazil is pushing to enforce smoking bans and backing nicotine replacement therapies in an attempt to keep chipping away at tobacco-use statistics. Raising the price of cigarettes would also help. Claudia Jurberg reports.
Taxes on tobacco products generated income of around US$ 2.2 billion for the Brazilian government in 2008, but that doesn’t mean the Brazilian government is going easy on the tobacco industry.
For the past two decades, Brazil has been at the forefront of global tobacco control initiatives. Vera da Costa e Silva, a public health specialist who advises the government on tobacco control, is proud to note that Brazil was the first country to ban the use of misleading adjectives such as “light” and “mild” from cigarette packages back in 2001. That move was in line with a law passed a year earlier requiring cigarette manufacturers to include pictorial health warnings covering at least 100% of one of the two main sides of a pack. These warnings often depict people in advanced stages of tobacco-related illness.
As a result of such initiatives, smoking prevalence has come down in the past two decades from 34% of the adult population in 1989 to 15% last year, according to the Brazilian Ministry of Health. But the declining trend has tailed off over the past few years as tobacco companies target new consumers, notably women. Meanwhile, 200 000 Brazilians die every year from tobacco-related diseases, according to the National Cancer Institute (INCA).
One area in which Brazilian tobacco control has faltered is in the enforcement of other key tobacco control measures, such as smoking bans in enclosed public places.
Six years after the ban on tobacco advertising and sponsorship in the UK, a London-based sports body stands accused of breaching the law by promoting a cigarette brand on its website.[1] The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) which represents the world's top male tennis players, is responsible for the sponsorship contracts for the various international tournaments. The next ATP World Tour tournament, which is due to take place in Basel, Switzerland from 31 October to 8 November, is sponsored by Davidoff, a cigarette brand manufactured by Imperial Tobacco. The Swiss indoor tournament is believed to be the only one in the world to be sponsored by a tobacco company.
British-based Imperial Tobacco acquired the Davidoff cigarette brand in 2006 and has exploited the weak law in Switzerland which still allows events to be sponsored by tobacco companies, although tobacco advertising on television is banned. However, the televising of the event means that tobacco advertising will be beamed into the homes of more than one billion people worldwide, [2] contrary to Article 13 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control which has been signed by 160 countries worldwide. [3]
ASH has written to the ATP urging the organisation to end its ties with the tobacco industry when the current contract comes to an end and is seeking clarification from the Department of Health regarding the possible breach of UK law.
Health experts believe that consumption of tobacco in Pakistan is becoming more and more alarming because its incidence is increasing among youth of Pakistan especially in schools, colleges and universities.
According to an estimate, Pakistanis smoke away Rs50 billion annually. Around 100,000 persons die every year in Pakistan due to diseases related to tobacco use. There are over 30 million smokers in Pakistan of which 37% are male while 9% female and about 1,200 youngsters take up smoking every day. Tobacco is the cause of at least 85% cases of lung cancer, cancer of mouth, throat, kidney, bladder and stroke, besides chronic bronchitis and emphysema.
Health experts say that Pakistan needs to reduce tobacco use to control non-communicable diseases and achieve the related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that can only be done by removing lacunas in current Anti-Smoking Ordinance because legislation and its implementation in true letter and spirit is the key to effective tobacco control.
"Markets like Pakistan are fair grounds for tobacco sales of big tobacco companies because of huge young and illiterate population, loose price controls, permission of sale of open or small packs of cigarettes, ignorance about toxic constituents and emissions of cigarettes and diverse health impacts; last but not the least due to lacunas in 'Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-Smokers Health Ordinance 2002'," said Head of Community Medicine at Islamabad Medical & Dental College Professor Dr Muhammad Ashraf Chaudhry while talking to 'The News' on lacunas in the ordinance.
Health Minister Jerry Narace has called on locals to back legislation that will give Government new powers to curb the use of tobacco in Trinidad and Tobago. “I call on every medical professional, every doctor, every cancer (victim), every individual...to write a letter in support (of the Tobacco Control Bill 2009). Make a statement. Say something in terms of supporting the tobacco control legislation,” Narace appealed. He was delivering the opening remarks at the fourth annual local breast cancer conference, which was hosted last Friday by the Trinidad and Tobago Cancer Society at the Marriott Courtyard Hotel along the Audrey Jeffers Highway near Invaders Bay. Narace said that the benefits for the population’s health from tobacco control were well-recognised and vastly supported among health professionals around the world.
According to Information from the Ministry of Health, the sale of cigarettes was on the increase despite increased taxes on the product.
This issue of Circulation includes a meta-analysis of the impact of smoking bans on hospitalization for acute myocardial infarction.2 The findings further attest to the power of government interventions. . . .
A systematic review of 26 studies showed that smoke-free workplaces reduced smoking prevalence by 3.8% and the amount smoked by 3.1 cigarettes daily in those continuing to smoke, together constituting a 29% decrease in total cigarette consumption.19 One of the studies included in the meta-analysis2 found that acute coronary syndrome admissions were decreased in smokers as well as nonsmokers.7 Furthermore, rather than having a negative impact on businesses, smoking bans can increase patronage of restaurants and drinking venues.
Clinicians should advise their patients to avoid public places that permit smoking, and families should be counseled not to smoke at home or in a vehicle with patients. Healthcare professionals can also be powerful advocates, and research such as that described in this issue2 strengthens the case for government action.
There are now smoking bans in place in over 70 countries across the world, but in Lebanon, where smokers seem to vastly outnumber nonsmokers, there have been no such efforts to curb tobacco use. In fact, Lebanon seems to be something of a smoker's safe haven. Gemmayzeh, arguably Beirut's most popular bar and restaurant district, will on Wednesday host its second smoke-free night this year in a bid to raise awareness on the dangers of tobacco.
Following the success of a no-smoking night in February, volunteers from the Beirut Metropolitan and Sahel Metn Rotaract Clubs decided to organize another to urge Lebanese authorities to encourage tobacco-free habits across the country. "We're looking for sustainability in this campaign," said Saiid Saber, a Rotaract volunteer.
"Our objective is to have regular smoke-free nights in all areas and in the long-term, to present a draft law to Parliament which restricts smoking in public places." The clubs have also drawn up an online petition urging Lebanon to ban smoking in public places.
Saber said that although Beirut is a signatory to the World Health Organization's (WHO) 2005 Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, it has failed to ratify the document and has done little to enforce it.
"Here things have been done in slow motion," he
WAM CAIRO, Oct. 25th, 2009: Regional Office of the World Health Organization for the Eastern Mediterranean honored the UAE's Health Ministry for its efforts to combat smoking.
This came at a cancer control event held in Cairo in celebration of the Breast Cancer Awareness Month in presence of the WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Cancer Control, Nancy Brinker.
The UAE was among other countries honored by WHO for their efforts to enforce no-smoking laws and anti-tobacco regulations including the federal anti-tobacco law and the implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, says Attache at the UAE Embassy in Cairo Khaled Al-Shehhi who represented the UAE to the event.
Much is written about smoking being unhealthy and harmful, but it is also a highly expensive habit. Spending on tobacco drives out critical expenditures that cover basic needs. This is most significant in low-income families, affecting the smoker and his or her family.
According to a report that was recently published in the International Resource Center, a study conducted in Indonesia found that children living with a smoker are more malnourished than those children that live with non-smokers. Malnutrition amongst children remains one of the world’s leading public health challenges and is associated directly or indirectly with more than 50 percent of the 11 million estimated preventable child deaths, annually.
According to Dr. Zuhdi Al-Imam, a consultant in Pediatric pulmonary medicine, smoking increases the chance of children getting chronic pulmonary diseases such as asthma. Moreover, it worsens the symptoms of an existing pulmonary disease, and worryingly, affects younger children more than older ones. . . .
It is increasingly evident that secondhand smoke exposure poses a significant health risk to children and this also suggests that there is really, no safe level of exposure.”
The Kingdom is a member of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and according to a report recently published in Saudi Gazette, new anti-smoking laws are being set in place to ban smoking in public places and will include fines of up to 200 Saudi riyals.
A Swiss antismoking campaign group is concerned that weak legislation in the country is being exploited by Imperial Tobacco to sponsor a tennis tournament and promote its brand of cigarettes and other products. The company is the fourth largest tobacco company in the world.
Switzerland is a sanctuary for the tobacco industry, said Pascal Diethelm, director of the antismoking group OxyRomandie, ahead of the Davidoff Swiss indoor tournament, which starts on 31 October as part of the Association of Tennis Professionals World Tour 500. The tournament, which is one of the last tobacco sponsored tennis events in the world, is being used by the company to intensively advertise its Davidoff brand, on court hoardings and the uniforms of line judges and ball girls and boys, said Mr Diethelm.
The last time the tournament was held in Basel in 2008, the "players drowned in an advertising soup for Davidoff," he said.
He added, "At the end of the match the young ball boys and ball girls received a medal from Roger Federer in recognition of having served the cause of Davidoff so well. Each medal bore the Davidoff logo in order to make sure that these potential future smokers will know which cigarette brand to choose when they start smoking."
OxyRomandie is appealing to the federal tribunal, Switzerland’s supreme court, against a ruling from the Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television that Swiss television is allowed to show the tournament even though Swiss law bans tobacco advertising on television.
The Good Life—that is the art of living. A culture of its own that revolves around taking time, perceiving the world with all the senses in order to experience the fine nuances of pleasure. Davidoff's "The Good Life" campaign. The Davidoff Swiss indoor tennis tournament is under fire.