[Intl-tobacco] Anti-smoking Forces Gather To Wage Global Battle (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

Anti-smoking Forces Gather To Wage Global Battle
Source: Reuters, Saturday, 8/5/00
WIRE:08/05/2000 10:27:00 ET

 CHICAGO (Reuters) - The "huge tragedy" facing developing countries now
being targeted as untapped markets by the tobacco industry will be in the
spotlight when health experts from around the world gather in Chicago
starting Sunday, a conference organizer said.

"We"re bringing the world"s tobacco-control community together in one
place to see how can we stem this tide of export, promotion and production
by the tobacco industry," said Dr. Thomas Houston of the American Medical
Association (AMA), co-chairman of the weeklong 11th World Conference on
Tobacco or Health.

The conference was expected to attract 4,000 scientists, anti-smoking
advocates and government health officials from 100 countries and from
bodies such as the U.N."s World Health Organization.

The World Health Organization has predicted that 70 percent of deaths
caused by smoking-related illnesses will take place in the developing
world, in part because people in those countries may be unaware of the
dangers posed by smoking.

The U.N. body is predicting that 500 million people -- almost one in 10
people now on Earth -- eventually will die from tobacco-related illnesses.

The annual global death toll from cigarettes is predicted to climb from
3.5 million people currently to 10 million in a little more than two
decades.

"It will be a huge tragedy for developing countries, and overwhelm their
health care systems," Houston said.

NEW MARKETS FOR TOBACCO SOUGHT

The tobacco industry has responded to legal setbacks in the West by
stepping up its decades-old drive to market their product around the
world, experts said.

Newly built cigarette factories in Russia, for instance, have been touted
as an economic benefit, not a risk to that nation"s health, Houston said.

In addition, the industry has been attempting to deter developing
countries from levying taxes on cigarettes or enacting western-style laws
that bar smoking in office buildings and other public places, conference
organizers said.

The World Health Organization recently charged that the tobacco industry
had been waging a secret campaign to subvert its global efforts against
smoking -- an allegation that the industry denied.

"They"ll have their spies" at the Chicago conference, Houston said,
referring to the industry.

This will be the 11th such world conference on tobacco since 1967, with
the last gathering held three years ago in Beijing, the capital of a
country that experts worry is on the brink of a smoking-related health
disaster.

"There are more smokers in China than people in the United States," said
Houston, who heads the Chicago-based AMA"s anti-tobacco campaign.

"China is about to reduce tariffs on imported tobacco, which is a disaster
in the making." Up to now, cigarette marketing in China largely has been
aimed at older men, with few women taking up the habit.

By lifting the bar to cigarette imports, China also will open itself to
slick western-style marketing campaigns capable of enticing other segments
of the population, experts said.


A DEADLY STATUS SYMBOL

China is not alone among developing countries where smoking --
particularly smoking of western brands of cigarettes -- has become a
status symbol and where few warnings are offered about health
consequences.

"Most people (in the developing world) believe cancer is a communicable
disease," Houston said.

"There"s terrible misinformation about cancer in general and tobacco
specifically.

The warnings are nebulous and not particularly clear." Conference sessions
are scheduled to cover the scientific basis for nicotine addiction, the
lessons learned from anti-smoking campaigns, and analyses of tobacco
industry tactics.

The findings of several studies are due to be unveiled at the conference
by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and academic
researchers.

Former tobacco company "whistle-blowers" who have exposed the industry"s
secrets are scheduled to hold a gathering, and participants were to assess
the legal fight against the industry in light of the recent $145 billion
Florida jury award in favor of that state"s sick smokers and the $246
billion industry settlement with the states.