[afro-nets] In preparation of People's Health Assembly II - part 31

[Claudio Schuftan <claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn>]

In preparation of People's Health Assembly II - part 31
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LANDMARK UN TOBACCO-CONTROL TREATY COMES INTO FORCE ON SUNDAY

The United Nations global treaty to curb tobacco use, which now
claims nearly 5 million lives a year and causes an estimated an-
nual net loss of $200 billion in treatment and lost productiv-
ity, comes into force on Sunday with a host of tools to clamp
down on the world's leading cause of preventable deaths.

The World Health Organization
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/pr09/en/index.html

WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
http://www.who.int/tobacco/framework/en/ (FCTC) requires parties
to the accord to restrict tobacco advertising, sponsorship and
promotion, set new labelling and clean indoor air controls, and
strengthen laws against tobacco smuggling. Already 57 countries
have become party to the landmark treaty, representing 2.3 bil-
lion people.

"I encourage all countries to become party to this treaty, and
to implement the range of measures which will make tobacco use
less and less attractive to people," WHO Director-General Lee
Jong-wook said ahead of Sunday's deadline for the first 40 coun-
tries that became contracting parties before 30 November 2004.
The other 17 became parties since then.

If current trends are not reversed, tobacco will prematurely end
the lives of 10 million people a year by 2020, WHO said. It is
the only legal product that causes the death of one half of its
regular users. This means that of the current 1.3 billion smok-
ers, 650 million people will die prematurely due to tobacco.

With its entry into force, countries party to the treaty are
bound to translate its general provisions into national laws and
regulations. They will have, for example, three years to ensure
that tobacco packaging has strong health warnings, or five years
to establish comprehensive advertising, promotion and sponsor-
ship bans.

"Many countries have already put these measures in place," said
Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva, Director of WHO's Tobacco Free Ini-
tiative. "The difference for global tobacco control is that
countries party to the Convention will be able to implement
these and other measures, especially those with cross-border im-
plications, in a coordinated and standardized way. This will
leave fewer loopholes for the tobacco industry, which currently
finds ways to circumvent national laws."

Evidence shows that smoking harms nearly every organ of the
body. Tobacco use is the cause of the majority of lung cancer
cases and it has been linked to many other types of cancer, such
as cervical and kidney cancer. Other health risks associated
with tobacco include heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovas-
cular diseases; bronchitis, asthma and other respiratory dis-
eases as well as infertility.

Tobacco use continues to expand, especially in the developing
world, where currently half of the deaths due to tobacco occur.
If current trends continue, seven out of every ten deaths due to
tobacco will occur in the developing world by 2020.