SUNS 4307 Thursday 22 October 1998
HEALTH: WHO CAMPAIGN AGAINST TOBACCO INDUSTRY
Geneva, Oct 20 (IPS/Gustavo Capdevila) -- The World Health Organisation (WHO) proposed opening discussion of an International Framework Convention of Tobacco Control Tuesday - this substance is expected to cause 10 million deaths worldwide in the year 2020.
WHO director general, Gro Harlem Brundtland, said the international treaty must regulate key aspects of tobacco control crossing national boundaries.
The Framework Convention will be concerned with harmonising taxes on tobacco products, smuggling, tax-free tobacco products, advertising, sponsorship, international trade, package design and labelling, and agricultural diversification.
The new WHO head announced her intention of prioritising worldwide tobacco control when she took up her post in July.
Brundtland Tuesday announced the appointment of South African medical epidemiologist Derek Yach as acting programme manager of the Tobacco Free Initiative.
At the same time, the WHO lanched another campaign against malaria, a disease with between 300 and 500 million cases each year, which kills from 1.5 to 2.7 million people.
Ninety percent of malaria deaths occur in Africa, mostly children.
WHO entrusted administration of the Roll Back Malaria initiative to Doctor David Nabarro, of Great Britain. Meanwhile, in the anti-tobacco campaign, Brundtland set up an association with other UN agencies, including the Childrens' Fund (UNICEF), and the World Bank.
The agreements with the WHO also extend to non governmental organisations, including groups representing health professionals and the pharmaceutical industry.
Although the redaction and negotiation of the anti-tobacco convention will be carried out by the States, the WHO recalled that the non governmental organisations played a determining role in the
preparation of the Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel mines.
As for the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol, it was the international organisations that spurred the process into action.
With these precedents, the WHO believes in conjunction with its partners, it can now play a determining role in the redaction and discussion of the initiative of a framework convention against
tobacco.
Brundtland stated she already has funds of 1.6 million dollars for essential outlay during the October 1998 to December 1999 period.
For the second stage of negotiations, from January 2000 and December 2002, an annual budget of around three million dollars is considered, and a third of this amount is already earmarked.
Brundtland's strategy, explained Tuesday in a seminar organised by the WHO consists of organising world action to accompany the national tobacco control initiatives.
The WHO aims thus to counteract the tobacco habit which is extensively communicated through the media, the entertainment industry, and most directly through the marketing and promotion of
specific products.
The world tobacco market has grown markedly during recent years and the direct foreign investments made by transnationals in developing nations have also increased, said Brundtland.
At present, new joint ventures are announced every few months between tobacco transnationals based in just a few developed countries and the governments of nations with emerging markets.
Tobacco control cannot be achieved only through the individual efforts of governments, non governmental organisations and some media advocates. "We need an international response to an
international problem," declared Brundtland.
The WHO initiative proposes to develop its campaign during the International Conference of Legislators for Tobacco Control, which will be held next March in the United States.
It will also take advantage of Finland's presidency of the European Union from July 1999, the 11th World Conference on Tobacco and Health, in Chicago in August 2000 and the European Union
Ministerial Conference in Poland in 2001.