WHO throws might into tobacco battle

The Province (Vancouver, B.C.) 06 Dec/98, Wendy McLellan, Health Reporter

It worked for landmines and infant formula; maybe it will work for tobacco, too.

A three-day international conference on tobacco control ended last week in Vancouver with experts from 18 countries agreeing to support the development of a World Health Organization treaty to reduce the health costs of smoking worldwide.

It is the first step toward the WHO's first international "convention" on tobacco control and is part of a four year plan to curb smoking and protect public health around the world.

Recommendations from the Vancouver meeting will be discussed at next month's WHO meeting in Geneva and a draft of the treaty is expected to be presented to the World Health Assembly in the year 2003.

"Our long-term goal is to have a sustained, steady reduction in smoking," said Dr. Derek Yach, project manager for the WHO's Tobacco-Free Initiative.

"Worldwide, there are 1.2 billion people who smoke. A dramatic improvement could be getting that number to 800 million. It would save hundreds of millions of lives, but there would still be millions of smokers. We're not going to see the death of this major industry, even if that is what would be good for public health."

Member countries will focus on children. A global advertising ban will be the key to decreasing the number of new smokers, said Yach.

"The longer we take, the more the tobacco industry will mobilize against us. And the more successful we are, the more denial we'll see of the health effects of smoking."

Delegate Lesley MacGregor of the B.C. Heart and Stroke Foundation said an international treaty on tobacco control will give countries around the world a united stand against smoking.

"It will stop the industry from moving from country to country. We know that, the more we do in North America, the more attention other countries get from the tobacco industry."

The treaty will also ensure that North American organizations share their tobacco-control strategies with developing countries.

Health Minister Penny Priddy said she hopes the WHO moves quickly.

"The WHO wiped out smallpox in this century. Let's hope it can wipe out tobacco in the next," she said.

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