Email
Password
(Forgot Password?)
The next World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH) - the 15th conference - will be held in Singapore for the first time, in 2012. The expected number of delegates for the conference in 2012 is estimated to be between 2,000 to 3,000 persons. . . .
5 The Health Promotion Board of Singapore will spearhead the organization of WCTOH 2012, to be held at the Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre. Singapore’s successful bid to host the 15th WCTOH was supported by Singapore Exhibition and Convention Bureau (SECB), a group of the Singapore Tourism Board (STB); numerous local government and non-government organizations; as well as several regional and international tobacco control organizations.
6 The proposed scientific programme of the 15th WCTOH will build on the WHO (World Health Organization) 2008 call to action for all countries to implement the MPOWER strategies to achieve the overarching aim of reversing the global tobacco epidemic. (More information on MPOWER is listed in the Annex document).
7 In order to spur countries into action for the next phase in tobacco control’s history, the 15th WCTOH has four goals:
• facilitate learning and collaboration among multi-sectoral tobacco control advocates, especially building capacity to tackle emerging issues;
• galvanize existing partners and foster new leadership, especially in countries where tobacco control efforts are lagging behind;
• encourage debate and advocate for evidence-based and innovative strategies on tobacco control, especially for the hard-to-reach; and,
• share lessons learnt on creating an enabling environment to implement the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control within diverse settings.
Jump to full article »
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Consumer Healthcare today announced plans to increase the availability of their therapeutic nicotine products to reach more than 800 million people world-wide over the next four years. The announcement was made at the World Conference on Tobacco OR Health (WCTOH) meeting held this year in India, a country on pace to see nearly one million smoking-related deaths per year by 2010(1). Thought leaders from around the globe gather at this triannual conference to discuss global initiatives under way to reduce tobacco use and its extraordinary health toll.
"GSK plans to introduce our quit smoking aids to 85 percent of the world's smokers by 2013. We are committed to finding approaches, in concert with local experts, to maximize the access and impact of our life-saving products," said Raj Mishra, MD, PhD, vice president research and development, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare. "Our hope is that by launching our therapeutic nicotine products globally we will be doing our part to help reduce the global burden from tobacco-related disease by helping more smokers quit."
The New Yorkbased Bloomberg Foundation has praised Thailand's Action on Smoking and Health Foundation for its efforts to control tobacco consumption by putting pictures representing the side effects of smoking on cigarette packets.
"The pictures we use on cigarette packets were of patients suffering from diseases related to smoking. We tested these pictures on smokers and nonsmokers and selected the ones that had the most effect," said Dr Prakit Vathisathokit, secretarygeneral of the foundation.
"We would be happy to send these pictures to other countries as well," he added.
Prakit, as a representative of the foundation, accepted the 2009 Bloomberg Award for Global Tobacco Control and a cash prize of US$100,000 (Bt3.6 million) at the 14th World Conference on Tobacco in Mumbai, India.
This is the first time that the Bloomberg Foundation has handed out awards for tobaccoconsumption control. The prize is aimed at rewarding government agencies and private organisation in low and middleincome countries that have complied with the World Health Organisation's MPower policy.
South Africa needs to step up its efforts to make the country 100 percent tobacco free by 2010, says the Cancer Association of South Africa (Cansa) in a statement on 16 March, after attending a world conference on tobacco control.
Tobacco-free means no use of tobacco in any public place, including sports stadiums. "The tobacco epidemic is threatening world health, especially in developing countries where the tobacco industry is aggressively marketing its deadly products in order to find new customers," says Cansa Head of Communication Martha Molete, who attended the 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Mumbai, India from 8-12 March 2009.
THE tobacco industry in Southeast Asia is “systematically obstructing” the implementation of a global treaty on curbing smoking and tobacco use, a regional advocacy network warns.�
Since it took effect in 2005, the implementation of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) in the region has been undermined by “insidious tactics” of Big Tobacco, the Bangkok-based Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (Seatca) said.
“The abuses of corporations like Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco International have ranged from attempting to write tobacco-control laws and blocking the passage of key legislations in the Philippines, Laos and Cambodia, and using so-called corporate social responsibility [CSR] to circumvent laws and regulations in Thailand,�Malaysia, Cambodia and the Philippines,” Seatca said in a press release.
At a panel discussion during the14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH) in Mumbai, Seatca director Bungon Ritthiphakdee said, “Tobacco-industry interference has been the No.1 obstacle to the WHO FCTC implementation, and countries in the Asean and its neighbors now see protections against this interference as the strongest factor of the treaty.” . . .
Seatca’s conference statement said Article 5.3 of the FCTC “is based on the premise that in public health programs, the tobacco industry is the problem, and NOT a stakeholder.”
Tobacco use is expected to kill six million people worldwide and drain $500 billion from the global economy each year, reveals the latest edition of the "Tobacco Atlas" released here Monday.
The third edition of the "Tobacco Atlas" was released by union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss on the second day of the 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health.
"In 2010, tobacco will kill six million people worldwide annually, 72 percent of whom will be in the low and middle income countries," says the atlas, which is a comprehensive volume of research on how the tobacco is devastating both global health and economies.
"Tobacco's estimated $500 billion drain on the world economy exceeds the total combined annual expenditure on health in all low and middle income countries."
Ramadoss described the report as a "glaring piece of information to control tobacco menace across world".
An Indian anti-smoking group at a conference here is lobbying to garner support for more No-Tobacco Days in the country.
Every year, May 31 is observed as an international No-Tobacco Day but Aligarh-based Students' Movement Against Tobacco and Smoking (SMATS) says Indian students miss activities on the day as most schools in the country are closed for summer vaccations.
SMATS is consulting hundreds of delegates and organisations at the 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health here to garner support for declaration of suitable national no-tobacco days in India and other countries.
Shimla is set to turn smoke-free soon and the entire state of Himachal Pradesh would follow suit in three years, officials said here Wednesday.
"We are moving in right direction to turn Shimla smoke-free on the Chandigarh model in next few months to save passive smokers from ill effects of tobacco," said Gopal Chauhan, nodal officer of tobacco control programme in the state.
Chauhan was speaking to IANS on the sidelines of the 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health.
Today World Lung Foundation and the American Cancer Society published The Tobacco Atlas, Third Edition and released an online version of the document at TobaccoAtlas.org. This comprehensive volume of research and its accompanying website graphically display how tobacco is devastating both global health and economies.
A $500 Billion Hole in Global Economy According to The Tobacco Atlas, tobacco’s estimated $500 billion drain on the world economy exceeds the total combined annual expenditure on health in all low-and middle-income countries.� The economic costs come as a result of lost productivity, misused resources, ineffective taxation and premature death:
* Because 25 percent of smokers die and many more become ill during their most productive years, income loss devastates families and communities.
* Cigarettes are the world’s most widely smuggled legal consumer product. In 2006, about 600 billion smuggled cigarettes made it to the market, representing an enormous missed tax opportunity for governments, as well as a missed opportunity to prevent many people from starting to smoke and encourage others to quit. A ten percent increase in cigarette prices reduces demand by up to five percent among adults, with even better results among young smokers.
Smokers trying to snuff out their habit will increasingly find more support, with 1,200 more tobacco-cessation centres set to come up in the country.
The Centre has a plan for about 600 smoking-cessation clinics in districts and medical colleges, the Union Health Minister, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, recently said, without indicating a time frame.
Government-run clinics counsel smokers to kick the butt. But cessation products are not part of these programmes, as the price is prohibitive, a Union Health Ministry official told Business Line. Nevertheless, the Centre is talking to Pfizer for a couple of pilot studies, the official added. . . .
Meanwhile, multinational drugmaker Pfizer, which launched its tobacco-cessation product Champix in India last year, will set up 600 cessation clinics by 2010. Pfizer will partner with Max Healthcare to run the cessation clinics in and around New Delhi.
Pfizer India plans to launch 600 smoking cessation clinics across the country in the next two years in partnership with private sector hospitals and clinics. Pfizer India director (pharmaceutical marketing) Anjan Sen said: “We have already tied up with 150 clinics in 17 cities, including Max Healthcare, and are in talks with more hospitals for partnerships. We are also in talks with the government to use this as a treatment option in the 600 clinics that they plan to set up.”
The government had last year announced to launch same number of clinics. The government clinics will use nicotine replacement therapies (NRT) like chewing gum and patches, along with counselling, to help people quit smoking, a method that doctors say has far less success rate than medication which blocks the receptors in the brain absorbing nicotine.
It isn't just cigarette smokers who will feel the impact of Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss's plans to curb smoking; tobacco farmers fear their livelihoods will be threatened by the government's plans to impose further restrictions on smoking and limit tobacco production.
India's commitment
Mr. Ramadoss said on Monday that India was committed to reducing tobacco production by 50 per cent by 2020 in accordance with the United Nations Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Policymakers need to step up efforts to cut smoking rates in Asia to prevent an "epidemic" of tobacco-related lung disease, a conference here was told Thursday.
Many Asian countries have seen a surge in tobacco use in the last decade, particularly among the young and in urban areas as a result of economic growth. A rise in smoking by women has also been noted.
But ignorance of the health risks remain, especially among the rural poor, while overall tobacco use is adding an economic burden to countries in terms of healthcare and insurance costs plus lost productivity through illness.
Matthew Peters, head of thoracic medicine at Sydney's Concord Hospital, told the 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health that there were "real and material healthcare benefits" for countries to encourage people to quit.
Asian countries need to do more to outlaw tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, as cigarette firms look to the region for lucrative new markets, health professionals were told Tuesday.
Some 60 percent of the world's population and about 65 percent of young people live in Asia, making it a money-spinning area for tobacco companies who have seen demand fall in developed countries.
Yet despite most countries in the region having ratified a World Health Organisation convention on tobacco control, enforcement of advertising bans is patchy, allowing loopholes to be exploited, a conference here heard.
Doctor Pankaj Chaturvedi, a Mumbai-based cancer surgeon and member of the Action Council Against Tobacco (ACT) India lobby group, welcomed steps to ban smoking in public places and to outlaw direct advertising by tobacco firms.
The tobacco industry in Southeast Asia is systematically obstructing implementation of a global treaty on curbing smoking and tobacco use, a regional advocacy network warned today.
Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (Seatca) said since it took effect in 2005, implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) in the region has been undermined by insidious tactics of big tobacco companies.
It said abuses by tobacco corporations have ranged from attempting to write tobacco control laws and blocking the passage of key legislations in the Philippines, Laos and Cambodia, and using so-called "corporate social responsibility" to circumvent laws and regulations in Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia and the Philippines.
The region's governments have been vulnerable to interference through the industry's lobbying, public relations dealings and CSR activities, Seatca said in a statement.