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UK Govt. Backs Framework Convention (fwd)
BBC Online
Tuesday, November 3, 1998 Published at 10:36 GMT
'Stop tobacco firms
targeting children'
Cigarette smoking: on the increase in the developing world
Prime Minister Tony Blair has been urged to stop
tobacco companies using aggressive marketing to target
women and children in the developing world.
Campaigners, including the British Medical Association
and the World Development Movement, want Mr Blair to
include a commitment to tough international controls on
tobacco marketing in the White Paper on tobacco
control due out before the end of the year.
They also want the British Government to work with
other countries to launch an international campaign to
curb the activities of the tobacco corporations.
Faced with declining sales in Europe and North America,
the giant tobacco corporations are stepping up their
activities in poorer countries. It is alleged they are
particularly targeting children and women, who in most
developing countries are much less likely to smoke than
men.
Restrictions on tobacco marketing in developing
countries are often weaker, non-existent or poorly
enforced.
Aimed at children
Marketing strategies employed by the tobacco
companies allegedly include:
In Cambodia, ice cream wagons are covered in
adverts for cigarettes;
In Chile, a tobacco company uses gangs of
glamorous young women to hand out free
cigarettes to children and adults in shipping
malls, video arcades and discos;
In China, a tobacco company sponsored the
country's first "rave" event last year.
In Malaysia, tobacco companies side step a ban
on advertising by lending their name to products
such as coffee and clothing. A tobacco
sponsored coffee bar in Kuala Lumpur is
advertised on a massive billboard 350 miles away
in Penang.
The marketing tactics appear
to be working. Although
smoking is in decline in the
industrialised world,
consumption of cigarettes
rose by 67% in developing
countries between 1970 and
1994, according to World
Health Organisation figures.
The WHO estimates that, if
present trends continue
unchecked, tobacco-related
deaths in developing
countries will rise from 1m a year to 7m a year in 2030.
Calling on the UK to act, Malaysian campaigner Mary
Assunta said: "It is the moral responsibility of the British
Government to address the overseas operations of
British companies.
"What they cannot do at home they should not do
overseas. Life outside Britain is no less valuable than life
in Britain."
Under a barrage
Dr Bill O'Neill, scientific adviser to the BMA, said: "To be
consistent in promoting an ethical foreign policy we have
to play a lead role in curbing international marketing
efforts of British tobacco companies who are responding
to tighter regulations in the developed world by targeting
vulnerable people in developing countries."
Emma Must, campaigns officer for the World
Development Movement, said the government had a
"golden opportunity" to take a world lead on clamping
down on tobacco companies.
She said: "Developing countries are under siege from a
barrage of aggressive marketing tactics."
Clive Bates, director of Action on Smoking and Health,
said: "It is disgraceful that children are being targeted,
but that is what tobacco companies have always done.
Adults don't take up smoking, children do, and they are
absolutely crucial to the market."
Suzanne Meldrum, head of corporate communications
for British American Tobacco, said the idea that the UK
government should push for international controls
"reeked of nannying tactics."
"To suggest that governments in the developing world are
not capable of determining their own legislation is
insulting and patronising," she said.
"It is quite legal and acceptable practice to target a
specific section of the population, such as women. BAT
does not target children."
Government backs WHO initiative
Health minister Tessa Jowell said the government's
White Paper on tobacco would be published before
Christmas, and that it would be inappropriate to reveal
details in advance.
"However, I can say that we welcome the priority that the
Director General of World Health Organisation, Dr Gro
Harlem Bruntland, is giving to tobacco issues and the
proposal to develop an international framework
convention to address the issues involved," she said.
"Our officials, in contact with the relevant organisations,
will fully co-operate in the planning, scheduling and
information sharing that would accompany the
development of an international framework, intended to
facilitate and encourage member states to strengthen
their own national tobacco control policies."
Full story
UK backs treaty for international tobacco
control
09:25 a.m. Nov 03, 1998 Eastern
By Patricia Reaney
LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Britain announced
its backing on Tuesday for an
international treaty to strengthen tobacco
controls, particulary in the developing
world.
Public Health Minister Tessa Jowell
welcomed the initiative which Gro Harlem
Bruntland has adopted as one of her top
priorities as director general of the
World Health Organisation.
``Our officials, in contact with relevant
organisations, will fully co-operate in the
planning, scheduling and
information-sharing that would accompany the
development of an international framework
convention for tobacco control
intended to facilitate and encourage member
states to strengthen their own
national tobacco control policies,'' Jowell
said in a statement.
The move followed calls from the British
Medical Association (BMA), The
World Development Movement and ASH (Action
on Smoking and Health)
urging Prime Minister Tony Blair to take an
active role in restricting tobacco
companies from marketing their products to
children and women in the
developing world.
At a joint press conference on Tuesday the
groups said tobacco giants are using
agreesive advertising techniques to entice
women and children in Asia to smoke
to compensate for their dwindling markets
in developed countries.
Sir Alexander Macara, a former chairman of
the BMA, described the marketing
tactics of tobacco giants in Asia as
``corporate manslaughter.''
One third of the 3.5 million people who die
from smoking related diseases every
year are in developing countries, he said,
but the figure is expected to increase
seven-fold by 2020 unless something is done.
Mary Assunta, of the Consumers' Association
in Penang, Malaysia, said tobacco
giants are getting around national bans on
advertising by sponsoring football
matches and pop concerts and dances where
free cigarettes are handed out to
young people.
In some Asian countries as many as 65
percent of men, the main breadwinners,
are smokers. Up to a third of their income
is spent on smoking.
``It is a far greater tragedy (in Asia)
simply because we are already economically
disadvantaged,'' she told the news conference.
Assunta said international tobacco
companies, mainly from the U.S. and Britain,
dominate the global market and should be
bound to the same rules that apply in
their home markets.
``British companies should not be allowed
to do overseas what they cannot do
here,'' she added.
Emma Must, of the World Development
Movement which works to change
policies of governments and business in
wealthy nations which cause poverty in
the developing world, said tobacco is a
global industry that needs international
regulations.
The proposed framework convention is a form
of treaty, similar to one that
regulates trade in toxic waste, that will
complement national action on tobacco
control.
Must said France, Canada and Finland have
already announced their support for
the convention which would address key
areas of tobacco control such as
advertising and sponsorship, package and
labelling. Supporters hope will be
ratified by 2003.
``We believe we have a legal and moral duty
to restrain the activity of tobacco
companies abroad,'' said Clive Bates, the
director of ASH.
``It is a clear case of double standards.''