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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.
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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.
Jordan is committed to the implementation of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC), Minister of Health Nayef Fayez said on Tuesday, noting that it was the second country in the region to endorse it.
The Ministry of Health has formed a committee to draw up a plan to implement articles 9 and 10 of the convention, which entered into force in 2005, he added.
"We are studying the possibility of enlarging the graphic warning printed on tobacco packets from 30 per cent to 50 per cent of the pack's total size," Fayez said at a meeting of 20 FCTC state parties to discuss the implementation of articles 9 and 10 yesterday.
He added that the ministry is also studying printing other graphics related to the impact of smoking on health.
Member states of WHO's Western Pacific region have unanimously agreed on a new action plan to tackle the huge burden of tobacco-related illness in the region. Margaret Harris Cheng reports.
To the surprise and delight of tobacco-control campaigners, a plan to operationalise the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) was passed with barely a murmur of dissent at the WHO's Western Pacific regional meeting held in Hong Kong last month.
Although representatives of three of the world's biggest tobacco producers—China, the USA, and Japan—were present when the plan came up for discussion, only China voiced any misgivings about the plan. “The action plan should offer guidance—it should not be a mandatory requirement for member states”, China's representative told the meeting.
The ease with which the plan was accepted was a surprise because it is considered a radical departure from its predecessors (this is the fifth such plan for the WHO's Western Pacific region). For the first time, the plan sets out objectives for member states and a timeframe (2010—14) in which those objectives should ideally be reached. All member states are expected to attend a progress review in 2012, and be ready and willing to explain what stage they are at with tobacco control and why they have, or have not, achieved their objectives.
It was this, the setting of very specific objectives, that made China somewhat uncomfortable.
The issue of tobacco control has been discussed by the Georgian Parliament and Government since the end of 2005, when Parliament ratified the concept of introducing tobacco control systems in Georgia in line with World Health Organisation recommendations. By taking on this commitment the country also took on the responsibility to forbid the smoking of tobacco in public buildings and on public transport, forbidding tobacco advertising and sponsorship and other obligations. In December 2008 the law on tobacco control was indeed amended. Smoking was forbidden in public places, educational and medical institutions and on public transport and in bars and restaurants were forced to set aside separate areas for smokers and non-smokers.
The Georgian Government initially decided that these amendments would be introduced only in 2012. Although they did in fact come into force in September 2009, the Government still wants the delay them, opposes introducing penalties for law violations and so on.
The NGO Tobacco Control Alliance and its Chairman Giorgi Bakhturidze think that some government members are lobbying for tobacco interests and that's why they are demanding the delays in implementing the amendments.
EVERYBODY, including tobacco companies, is now agreed that smoking is detrimental to good health. You only have to look at the cigarette packets to know this.
But nicotine is a powerful addictive drug. If you get hooked, it is very tough to give it up.
The best cure is prevention -- stop people from taking up the smoking habit in the first place. That means the target must be the young -- discourage them by all means fair from picking up the habit in the first place. . . .
We need guts and gumption to deal with this. Here are 10 ways to show we have it.
1. Increase cigarette prices. . . .
10. Adhere to international codes, rules and regulations. The world at large has recognised the dangers of smoking. Most countries in the world are signatories to the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control which sets out measures that can be taken to discourage smoking.
By adhering to provisions of the code, Malaysia can move forward in the fight against smoking, which statistics show is becoming an increasingly serious problem here.
A phased series of actions based on these lines will go a long way towards checking smoking among our children and discouraging smokers from, well, smoking, thereby reducing the incidence of smoking overall.
It is important not to pull punches because of the cost it might inflict on the tobacco industry. The economic damage that smoking causes through health and productivity costs is far more than the benefits the industry contributes.
Dr. Florante E. Trinidad, Technical Officer, Tobacco Free Initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO) sees picture-based warnings as effective deterrent against tobacco smoking as compared to text warnings only.
Speaking on the second day of the 3rd Quarter 2009 Media Forum on Tobaco Control Program held recently at the Davao Regency Resort and Hotel Davao City, Dr. Trinidad pointed out during his presentation that picture-based health warnings would increase its effectiveness, make the message more noticeable and salient and help counter the branding and imagery of the package. According to him, it also engages the audience on an emotional level and communicates information to illiterate or less literate populations. . . .
Among the world's youths, according to Trinidad, Philippines counts among the heaviest tobacco users with Filipino girls occupying 2nd place and Filipino boys occupied the 4rth slot in 2003. One in every five students, aged 13-15 currently smoke.
It is also equally alarming, as Trinidad pointed out, that hundreds of thousands of people who have never smoked die each year from illness related to inhalation of other people's tobacco smoke.
In Vietnamese tobacco is called 'thouc la', which means 'medicinal leaves'. Given a reported 40,000 die each year from lung cancer, it is not the most apposite name. . . .
Huong typifies the male-smoking population of Vietnam, considered one of the biggest in the world: 56 percent of the country's estimated 86 million population. The figure could be higher, said health officials who spoke with IPS. China, Malaysia and Laos all record higher figures, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
"It's a huge burden to the health system," Dr Nguyen Tuan Lam of the Tobacco Free Initiative of WHO told IPS in a telephone interview. He believes the official number of lung cancer deaths is massively underreported, saying it could be closer to 70,000. Compare this figure with the incidence of traffic accidents, often called a "hidden epidemic" in the motorcycle-riding South-east Asian country, which accounted for a comparatively lower 12,000 deaths in 2008.
Compared to men, there are extremely few female smokers in Vietnam. In fact, the communist nation has one of the lowest female smoking rates in the world at 2.1 percent of the population.
"The attitude here is that only naughty girls smoke. It's not ladylike and it's not nice," said Lam.
Since Vietnam ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in December 2004, it has banned all forms of advertising, increased taxes on cigarettes and last year added larger warning labels to packaging.
In late August government announced that starting Jan. 1, 2010, smoking would be prohibited in public places