AFRO-NETS> WHO: Tobacco control

[Dieter Neuvians MD <neuvians@harare.iafrica.com>]

WHO: Tobacco control
--------------------

Press Release WHO/15 3 March 1999 

WHO SAYS GLOBAL TOBACCO CONTROL IS ABOUT SAVING LIVES, NOT PROFIT 
LINES, AND INVITES TOBACCO FARMERS WORLDWIDE TO BACK ITS EFFORTS

Tobacco is a killer and tobacco growers must separate their concern for 
their own livelihood from the public health impact of tobacco which 
kills 4 million people today and could kill up to 10 million annually 
by the late 2020s, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today. 

The agency called on tobacco growers to back WHO's efforts to give the 
world its first public health treaty - the Framework Convention on To-
bacco Control (FCTC). "WHO is not against tobacco farmers, but as the 
world's premier health agency, WHO is committed to addressing the to-
bacco epidemic," Dr Derek Yach, head of WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative 
(TFI) told a delegation of the International Tobacco Growers Associa-
tion (ITGA). 

WHO Director General Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland has identified global 
tobacco control as one of her major priorities. The proposed Framework 
Convention, the world's first multilateral convention focusing specifi-
cally on a public health issue, would deal with a range of tobacco-
related issues but it would also ensure that individual countries are 
protected from the impact of multinational tobacco companies. 

Richard Tate, President, ITGA, said tobacco growers worldwide, but es-
pecially in the developing countries, were concerned about WHO's global 
tobacco control initiative, adding that their concerns should not be 
confused with those of tobacco multinationals. He hoped that WHO would 
keep farmers' concerns firmly in focus during the negotiations. 

WHO told the delegation that tobacco multinationals were shifting their 
focus to developing countries, which will account for 70% of the 10 
million annual tobacco deaths by about 2020. "WHO cannot simply stand 
by and count the dead," said Richard Peto, scientific advisor to TFI. 
The world's largest analytical study of tobacco deaths shows that, in 
China, smoking already accounts for 75,000 deaths a year ð and this 
will rise to 3 million by the time today's young smokers reach middle 
age. 

Dr Yach, who chaired a meeting between public health professionals and 
the ITGA in Zimbabwe in 1993, invited ITGA to work with WHO, the Food 
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World 
Bank and other international agricultural agencies to explore long-term 
options for crop substitution. In the interim, a focus on the role of 
agriculture and trade policies, including subsidies that restrict ac-
cess by poor countries to the global tobacco market, was needed. 

ITGA was told that WHO, FAO and the World Bank agree that, based upon 
experience with narcotic control, efforts to reduce production will be 
ineffective without a reduction in demand. 

WHO is exploring the possibility of establishing a high-level panel of 
economists and farmers to address long-term concerns of tobacco farm-
ers. Seeking a multilateral approach to long-term options for crop sub-
stitution, WHO has begun preliminary talks with other UN agencies in-
cluding FAO. 

WHO has also started exploratory talks with international donor agen-
cies to assist farmers during the period of transition from tobacco to 
other crops - this could occur two to three decades down the line when 
demand for tobacco could shrink as a result of good control measures. 

Tate agreed with WHO that global tobacco control will not lead to any 
significant drop in consumption in the short and medium term. WHO rec-
ognizes that successful tobacco control will not reduce the need for 
tobacco in the medium term - the world's current 1.2 billion smokers 
could drop to between 800 million to one billion under good control 
measures. That would still leave a substantial demand for tobacco. 

WHO urged the ITGA to distance itself from tobacco multinationals' at-
tack WHO, FAO and the United Nations. Dr. Yach drew the attention of 
the farmers delegation to secrets documents made available after the 
Minnesota (US) trials which showed the ITGA in the early 1990's working 
with tobacco transnationals to "split FAO/WHO", "destroy crop substitu-
tion myths", "attack WHO" and "question WHO priorities, budget". 




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