[Intl-tobacco] Malaysian Ban on Tobacco Ads Welcomed by Health Groups

[Robert Weissman]

Malaysian Ban on Tobacco Ads Welcomed by Health Groups

by Kalyani,OneWorld South Asia
URL:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/oneworld/20020823/wl_oneworld/1032_1030110334

Health educators and activists around the world Thursday hailed a
Malaysian government decision to ban tobacco advertising from next year
as part of efforts to control smoking in the Southeast Asian
nation, saying that the measure would have an impact on policies in other
developing nations across the region.

The announcement this week of Malaysia's tobacco advertising ban
would encourage similar action among other nations in Asia where up to
50,000 teenagers take up smoking daily, according to Health
Related Information Dissemination Amongst Youth, which educates
young people on the health risks of tobacco consumption.

"Governments in developing countries, including India, are likely
to follow in the footsteps of Malaysia in banning tobacco
advertising and sponsorship," said Monika Arora, program manager of the
New Delhi-based group. "The step should encourage the passage
of a bill through the Indian parliament, during its winter session, that
aims to control the use of tobacco with measures such as
sponsorship bans," she said.

Malaysian health minister Chua Jui Meng said Tuesday that the ban
would take effect from January 1, 2003, covering all forms of
advertising and sponsorship, with the exception, initially, of
soccer events and Formula One motor racing. Tobacco
companies--including British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco
Industry, and Philip Morris--spent an estimated $12.4 million on
promoting their products in Malaysia between January and May this
year.

The Malaysian government move comes after a sustained global
campaign by the World Health Organization   for gradual elimination of
tobacco advertising and sponsorship according to the terms of
the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which will be ready
for adoption next year. The draft treaty, released last month,
proposes a global ban on all forms of tobacco promotion.

"Tobacco gets mileage when it is associated with sports which are
actively understood by the public as something positive and
sports-people as those who have to be emulated," said Harsharan
Kaur Pandey, WHO's information officer in New Delhi.

Arora said that tobacco sponsorship and advertisements particularly
influenced young people in developing countries, where increasing
numbers were starting to smoke. Half of all Filipinos aged between seven
and 17 years, for example, had taken up the habit, an
increase of 150 percent on the number of smokers in that age-group in
1987.

A recent survey by Health Related Information Dissemination Amongst Youth
found that over 86 percent of Delhi students had seen
cigarette advertisements posted on billboards and nearly 70 percent had
seen similar promotional material in newspapers and magazines
over a 30-day period.

"Young students are lured into smoking by advertisements and
sponsorships," Arora said, adding that the survey had found that
five percent of Delhi students aged 13-15 were smokers.

WHO estimates that one in four teenaged smokers would die
prematurely of tobacco-related health problems, such as heart
disease and lung and mouth cancer. About 4.2 million people around the
world die annually from such illnesses.

Smoking-related deaths are expected to rise over the next few
decades, according to projections by the Cancer Foundation of
Western Australia. While about 150 million people are expected to
die from diseases associated with tobacco use between 2000 to 2025, the
number of fatalities would double to some 300 million between
2025 and 2050.

"And since most of these deaths would be in the developing nations, any
kind of ban on tobacco advertising or sponsorship would
certainly help prevent the spread of tobacco," said Terry Slevin,
director of education and research at the Foundation. "The
Malaysian step should prompt other countries to work out strategies to
control the use of tobacco."