WHO meeting seeks curbs on tobacco use

UN group sees smoking as worldwide issue that should be addressed on a global scale

The Globe and Mail, Wed., Dec. 2, 1998, Jane Armstrong - British Columbia Bureau, Vancouver

(Please read FORCES' comments regarding this "worldwide issue" - WHAT'S NEW?)

A ground-breaking World Health Organization conference will start work today on an international treaty that - if ratified - could force participating countries to drastically curb how tobacco is advertised, marketed, taxed and even grown.

If adopted, the treaty would be the first international agreement on tobacco control and could severely curtail the way tobacco companies market and promote cigarettes, especially in developing countries, where 70 per cent of the world's 1.2 billion smokers reside.

By the end of the three-day conference in Vancouver, participants hope to leave with a draft copy of the proposed International Framework Convention for Tobacco Control, a document the health group wants all 191 World Health Organization members, including Canada, to sign by 2003.

The health body is a specialized agency of the United Nations.

Proponents hope the conference will spark public demand for international standards in the same way momentum built around the world for global treaties on land mines and ozone depletion.

British Columbia agreed to act as host for the conference as part of the province's aggressive, anti-tobacco campaign.

The health body's move to press for an international treaty marks a departure from past thinking in that the international health organization no longer believes any one country or health group can put a big dent in tobacco consumption. Rather, smoking is a global issue that has to be addressed on an international scale.

"A treaty or a convention addresses tobacco control problems that individual states can't address by themselves," said Douglas Bettcher, the international organization's co-ordinator for the proposed treaty.

For example, most developed countries have detailed laws prescribing how tobacco is advertised and marketed. But many developing nations in Africa, South America and Asia do not.

Even those countries that restrict tobacco promotion often can't enforce their own rules. For example, in Singapore, cigarette advertising is prohibited on television, but most residents can still see cigarette ads on television stations beamed from other Asian countries. In Cambodia, so-called Marlboro girls hand out free cigarettes on city streets.

"(Tobacco control) is definitely a global issue now," said Lucinda Wykle-Rosenberg, a research director at Infact, a Boston-basted corporate watchdog group that helped promote an international code for the marketing of infant formula. "This would be an important step in helping to curb this worldwide epidemic."

Ms. Wykle-Rosenberg said a treaty would make it easier to monitor and control the use of tobacco throughout the world. "I think this could be an important accountability tool and could help with issues that can't be resolved at the national level."

Even in Canada, the spirit of domestic bans on cigarette advertising in magazines is routinely flouted because the rules don't cover imported international publications, Dr. Better noted.

One of the issues on the agenda this week is an international ban on cigarette advertising. If Canada signed on, it could conceivably take legal action against tobacco companies that advertised in magazines imported into Canada.

Once a treaty is forged, it would be up to countries that sign the document to decide how tough they should be.

Apart from marketing issues, there are a range of issues many health groups want to discuss, namely, clamping down on tobacco smuggling, the possibility of banning duty-free sales of tobacco, providing subsidies to countries dependent on tobacco production and harmonizing tobacco pricing and taxation around the world.

The plan to develop an international code was given the green light by WHO director-general Gro Harlem Brundtland, who has flagged global tobacco control as a top priority.

Dave Laundy, vice-president of the British Columbia branch of the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers' Council, said he hopes conference participants base their decisions on "accurate information," adding they should take note that "other advertising bans have not been successful in reducing smoking levels."

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