Progress in reducing tobacco use is a key indicator for measuring countries’ efforts to implement the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control – target 3.a under the Sustainable Development Goals agenda.
Philip Morris has ended a controversial 8-year-old program that supported research at dozens of U.S. universities. The tobacco company's decision removes a major factor behind a recent decision by the University of California (UC) to monitor the flow of such support into the 10-campus system.
with each puff of cigarette smoke, one may add on a few virtual years. Scientists have discovered that the smoke suppresses a gene that prevents premature aging. The gene, called sirutin or sirt
All tobacco packets sold in India will soon have either of the two mild images
A Group of Ministers (GoM) on Tuesday recommended using pictorial warnings on cigarette, beedi and tobacco product packs but did not set any time-frame for its implementation. Chaired by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, the GoM also decided to tone down the nature of pictures and reduce the size of warnings from 50 to 30 or 40 per cent of the pack size. "The chairman will decide on the kind of pictures, which are either a scorpion or lungs and the size of the pictures in consultation with the Union Health and Family Welfare Minister,' Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi told reporters after the meeting. He said this was the last meeting of the GoM and the final decision on the nature and size would be taken by this weekend. Notification According to Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, a notification on pictorial warnings would be issued once a decision was taken on the picture and the size. However, the government would run a two-phase campaign to create awareness on the issue before implementation. "Importantly, we want to give time to the Labour Ministry to look for alternative jobs for those who could, if any, be affected by these warnings,' Dr. Ramadoss said. The first phase would be started in the next financial year and depending upon its outcome, the second phase would be launched, Dr. Ramadoss said.
The civil society groups have urged the finance minister P Chidambaram to raise taxes on tobacco products in the coming budget. The reason, civil groups feel, is that it is the only way to curb the use of these lethal products and also provide the much-needed resources for funding education about the bad effects of tobacco. The groups have been lobbying with the government and political leaders for quite sometime and have stepped up their activities perceiving the budget as an opportunity for taking a hard knock at its use and abuse. To impress upon their point, 'Avinash society,' a constructive crusade against substance abuse in India, had recently met Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi and asked him to use his good offices to get the government into action. The society is of trie view that tobacco consumption is the single largest cause of preventable deaths in the country. It is estimated that around 10 lakh deaths in the country are caused due to tobacco consumption. The revenue from taxing tobacco products could be dedicated towards societal welfare initiatives, especially education.
In the 20th century, the tobacco epidemic killed 100 million people worldwide. During the 21st century, it could kill one billion, says the World Health Organisation (WHO), which has come up with a six-policy package to counter the tobacco epidemic and reduce its deadly toll. In view of the global tobacco epidemic and the warning issued by WHO, organisations working for the improvement of public health have decided to pressurise the Government to make pictorial warnings mandatory on cigarette packets and other related products. The delay on the part of the union Government to introduce pictorial warnings came in for sharp attack from the Voluntary Health Association of Assam on Sunday. The members of the association while taking the Government to task said the tobacco epidemic has emerged deadlier than HIV/AIDS, as it can kill in many ways. Dr Gautam Borgohain, medical officer of the association, said the cure for the devastating tobacco epidemic was not dependent on medicines or vaccines, but on the concerted actions of the Government and the civil society. "Tobacco use can kill in so many ways that it is a risk factor for six to eight leading causes of death in the world,' said Dr Borgohain. On the other hand, Ruchira Neog, executive secretary of the association said tobacco was the only legal consumer product that harms everyone exposed to it and kills up to half of those who use it. "Though tobacco is the single most preventable cause of death in the world today, its use is wide spread due to low price, lack of awareness about its dangers and aggressive marketing,' said Ruchira stressing the need for applying the WHO recommended measures to control tobacco epidemic. The WHO recommends six policies to reverse the tobacco epidemic. These are
NEARLY half of the world's 1.3 billion smokers live in China, India and Indonesia, the three largest consumers of tobacco products. In China alone, more people smoke than live in the United States. Those countries and others in the developing world represent promising frontiers for the big tobacco companies as they move to win over existing smokers and, according to a new report by the World Health Organization, convince teenagers and women to light up. Smoking has declined slowly in the West. But over the last four decades it has grown steadily in the developing world, in fact, during that time, the respective shares of global cigarette consumption between rich and poor nations flipped:Tobacco products already are responsible for about 5.4 million deaths a year from lung cancer, heart disease and other illnesses, according to the W.H.O., an arm of the United Nations. If trends continue, that number will rise to more than eight million annually by 2030, the agency estimated, with 80 percent of those deaths in the developing world. The eventual toll from tobacco products could be a billion deaths in this centuff, the report said - 10 times the 100 million smoking-related deaths that occurred in the 20th century. The W.H.O. tracked the vigor of tobacco controls worldwide and found them especially weak in poorer nations. One reason is that many governments are in the tobacco business and rely on it for revenue. Case in point: the world's largest cigarette maker is the state-owned China National Tobacco Corporation. BILL MARSH China Has 30 percent of the wodd's smokers. India Has 11 percent of the world's smokers. Indonesia Has 5 percent of the world s smokers Below are percentages of adult smokers in China, India and indonesia - defined by the United Nations as those 15 years and older - and nonsmokers who offer a potentially fucrative market for tobacco products
Director, Tobacco Institute of India It provides livelihood to 27 million people
Three years ago, an international treaty took effect that was designed to help developing countries resist aggressive marketing by big tobacco companies. The idea was that if a large number of countries committed themselves to the same tobacco control policies - including bans on all advertising and promotion - they would be better able to resist pressure from multinational tobacco companies and their own tobacco sellers. Unfortunately, the governments of low- and middle-income countries have not followed through. With tobacco use declining in wealthier countries, tobacco companies are spending tens of billions of dollars a year on advertising, marketing and sponsorship, much of it to increase sales in these developing countries. A new report issued by the World Health Organization offers the first comprehensive analysis of tobacco use and control efforts in 179 countries. It notes that tobacco will kill more people this year than tuberculosis, AIDS and malaria combined. It warns that unless governments do more to slow the epidemic, tobacco could kill a billion people by the end of the century, the vast majority in poor and middle-income countries. There is no great mystery about what needs to be done. The WHO recommends several proven strategies: very high taxes on tobacco products; a total ban on all advertising and promotion; a ban on smoking in all public places and workplaces; large, scary warning pictures on packs; and strong programs to help people quit. Yet few countries are doing any of these things with vigor. Not a single country fully implements all of the measures, and not one of the recommended steps covers more than about 5 percent of the global population. The tobacco companies' vigor to sell is unflagging. As part of a strategy to ramp up its sales in the developing world, Philip Morris International is being spun off from the Altria Group so that it can escape the threat of litigation and government regulation in the United States. The international company is also planning a slew of new products aimed at particular countries, including sweet-smelling cigarettes that have more tar and nicotine. It is impossible to believe claims by many companies that they are not trying to addict new smokers but are only trying to convert adults who are using inferior local brands. The WHO survey contends that the industry is targeting teenagers and women in developing countries. One problem is that many low- and middle-income countries have become addicted to revenues from tobacco taxes, which may lessen their zeal to curb tobacco sales. Such governments need to realize that unless they move now to curb the epidemic, tobacco will cause horrendous health and economic damage. The Bush administration, which reluctantly signed the international treaty, has not submitted it to the Senate for ratification. That means that the U.S. officials will not have a seat at negotiations, begun last week, over a supplementary treaty to combat smuggling, counterfeiting and other illicit trade in tobacco products - a source of funds for criminal gangs and terrorist groups that could threaten this country's security. The White House needs to stop dithering and present the treaty for ratification.
Preventable loss of life A NEW study has found that Indians are more susceptible to the harmful effects of tobacco and that the addiction is set to claim an overwhelming 10 lakh lives a year from 2010. No less a figure than Professor Amartya Sen has called for "immediate public action' to stem deaths from what he rightly calls an "entirely preventable' cause.
