[Intl-tobacco] [Fwd: Recent Coverage of the FCTC in the US Press]

[rob@essential.org]

--
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Recent Coverage of the FCTC in the US Press
From: "Ross Hammond" <margross@igc.org>
Date: Tue, November 26, 2002 9:56 am
To: <margross@igc.org>

Dear Colleagues:

Please see below a number of recent articles from the US press on the
neggotiations on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC),
including an extraordinary editorial from the Washington Post that
appeared yesterday. It has not been easy getting the US media interested
in the issue, but we are hoping that as the final round of negotiations
approach in late February we will have more and more success.

Cheers,
Ross


Mr. Bush and Tobacco - Washington Post


Monday, November 25, 2002; Page A14

ORGANIZATIONS THAT violate U.S. sanctions on Iraq cannot usually expect
sympathy from the Bush administration. Nor can groups that collude with
Russian mobsters or Colombian drug gangs. If the allegations recently
filed by 10 European governments in a New York district court have
merit, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. (RJR) has run a smuggling
conspiracy involving all three offenses. Even so, the Bush
administration persists in siding with RJR and the other cigarette
giants in international
tobacco-control negotiations convened by the World Health Organization.

The smuggling allegations are based on information compiled by the 10
countries' law enforcement agencies. They suggest that RJR knowingly
sold large volumes of cigarettes to mobsters, partly because criminals
can be helpful in gaining access to some overseas markets, and partly
because they pay more than legitimate partners. The lawsuit also claims
that: RJR obliged the mobsters by removing marks and numbers from its
products to prevent them from being traced; the firm and its affiliates
frequently switched bank accounts to cover up their actions; and its
smuggling operation in Iraq yielded vast profits for Saddam Hussein's
son, Uday. As well as selling a product that kills people, RJR allegedly
finances people who kill people. If the suit succeeds, similar
complaints against other tobacco majors are expected.

Of course, the suit also may fail, and RJR's reputation may recover to
its former level. But that level is still pretty low. Tobacco causes 4.9
million deaths a year and is expected to double its kill score by 2020.
That marketing advance will be achieved by hooking people least able to
resist, especially teenagers in poor countries. Already, worldwide one
in seven children aged 13 to 15 smokes; two-thirds say they want to quit
but can't, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention and the National Cancer Institute. By 2020 an estimated 70
percent of
tobacco-related deaths will occur in developing countries.

To combat this epidemic, the World Health Organization has sponsored
negotiations on a global tobacco-control treaty. The penultimate round
finished last month; the next and final one will take place in February.
Most of the participating countries support a range of sensible
measures. Tobacco advertising should be banned, except in countries
(such as the United States) where this would be unconstitutional.
Tobacco-control measures should not be subject to challenge on trade
grounds, because trade rules should promote the free exchange of goods,
not bads, such as tobacco. Smuggling should be suppressed wherever
possible. Cigarette packs should carry prominent health warnings, and
misleading terms such as "light" and "mild" should be forbidden. All
these policies are common-sensical. And yet the Bush administration has
mostly dragged its feet. It needs to start lifting them.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34758-2002Nov24.html

****************************************************************************
**************************************************************

David Lazarus, 20 November 2002, San Francisco Chronicle,  "U.S., pushed
by Philip Morris, stalling global ban on tobacco ads: U.S. wants world
to choke together "

Tobacco foes are gathering in San Francisco this week to discuss how a
multibillion-dollar global industry systematically murders its customers
and what can be done to stop it. One potential remedy, which will be a
key focus of talks today and Thursday at the Hilton Hotel, is a proposed
international treaty on tobacco controls, including a ban on cigarette
ads. The treaty has been in the works since 1999 and is scheduled for
completion by May. This could be a major step forward in preventing 5
million tobacco-related deaths a year worldwide. Slick and sexy
cigarette advertising is especially pernicious in hooking young people
on lifelong nicotine habits.

But the U.S. delegation to the treaty negotiations is digging in its
heels, insisting that there's no way it will accept a ban on tobacco
ads, no matter how flexibly the language is worded to accommodate the
Bush administration's concerns. Antismoking advocates say it's clear
who's pulling the strings here -- an interested party with everything to
lose from restrictions on U.S. cigarette producers hawking their deadly
wares to the rest of the world: Philip Morris, the world's largest
tobacco company.

"The future of Philip Morris lies in the developing world," said Ross
Hammond, an activist affiliated with the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids,
an antitobacco lobbying group. "It lies in China and India. That's why
they won't tolerate this." Indeed, while U.S. tobacco use is declining,
Philip Morris said last month that its international sales in the most
recent quarter were up 2.3 percent and would have been even higher if
the West Coast port lockout hadn't disrupted shipments to smoke-happy
Japan.

Hammond, who has attended the various sessions of the treaty
negotiations in Geneva, said representatives of Philip Morris have been
seen lurking in the wings and have made no secret of their opposition to
a global ban on cigarette ads. More importantly, the company has
showered Republican politicians with money to get its point across.
According to public records, Philip Morris contributed $2.7 million to
Republican causes in the most recent election cycle, compared with a
risk-hedging $538,000 handed to the Democrats.

Since 1989, the company has lavished no less than $14.3 million on its
Republican friends, making it one of the the party's largest donors.
"It's very appropriate for us to be contributing our policy positions
and being involved in the political process," said Brendan McCormick, a
Philip Morris spokesman. As for the company's sway over the treaty
talks, he said that "this is a question best answered by the U.S.
delegation."

The head of the delegation, Assistant Surgeon General Kenneth Bernard,
did not return a call seeking comment. Since the Bush administration
took power, said Hammond of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the U.S.
delegation "has grown much more hostile" toward hammering out a treaty
that will actually have an impact on global tobacco use. He said the
delegation is also working behind the scenes to pressure other nations
-- particularly those desperate for U.S. aid -- to toe the line in
challenging an ad ban.

"The U.S. delegation wants to protect one of its largest campaign
contributors, which is the tobacco industry," Hammond said. "There's no
other logical reason to oppose the treaty as it looks now." He's
referring to newly drafted language submitted by European delegations
that would allow participating countries to ignore the ad ban if it
violates existing constitutional protections, such as the First
Amendment. In other words, Philip Morris and its cronies could still
claim a free- speech prerogative to reach for the throats of U.S.
consumers, although they'd probably run into roadblocks abroad.

"We're really out of touch with the rest of the world on this," said
Susana Hennessey Lavery of the San Francisco Tobacco-Free Project, an
arm of the city's Department of Public Health. "Most of the countries at
the talks want a complete ban on tobacco ads."

More than 160 nations are participating in the talks. Of this number,
about two-thirds are said to favor a ban on cigarette ads, particularly
delegations from Africa, Southeast Asia and Europe, where
tobacco-related ailments threaten to overwhelm medical resources.
According to the World Health Organization, the global death toll from
smoking will top 10 million annually within the next 30 years unless
steps are taken to curb tobacco use. The United States is joined by
Germany and Japan -- two other nations with powerful tobacco interests
-- in opposing the ad ban. There is less division on other key treaty
issues, including efforts to curb smuggling of cigarettes and
standardize tobacco labeling. You may have noticed that Philip Morris
included a glossy insert in Sunday's newspaper touting the company's
newfound responsibility in dealing with tobacco issues.

"We agree with the overwhelming medical and scientific consensus that
cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and other
serious diseases in smokers," it says. "We agree with the overwhelming
medical and scientific consensus that cigarette smoking is addictive."
But the company apparently feels these aren't good reasons to enact a
tough international treaty to sharply reduce cigarette consumption.
Philip Morris says online (www.pmfctc.com) that it will only support a
sensible treaty, which it defines in part as one free of "bureaucratic
rules that would make it impossible, as a practical matter, for
manufacturers to provide adults around the world with affordable,
high-quality cigarettes that they enjoy." Never mind that the company
freely admits these same cigarettes are addictive and potentially
lethal.

Philip Morris also says it is against any treaty that fosters "continued
acrimony rather than solutions that governments and industry members can
pursue together." Governments and the tobacco industry working together
-- now there's a recipe for clean living. Heck, why go to the trouble of
ratifying a treaty in the first place? In any case, at least as far as a
ban on cigarette ads goes, the position of the Bush administration is
clear: over our dead bodies. And that shouldn't take Philip Morris very
long.

URL:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/11/20
/BU35279.DTL

Tobacco -- greatest weapon of mass destruction

John Seffrin , Wednesday, November 20, 2002, San Francisco Chronicle.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/1

Every day, Americans pick up their newspapers and read about "weapons of
mass destruction." But the most effective weapon of mass destruction
ever produced and used by mankind is not a nuclear, biological or
chemical weapon. The world's biggest killer is the cigarette. Yes, the
cigarette (promising to keep you, as one ad says, "Alive with
pleasure!") is the most effective killing machine mankind has ever
invented and actually put to use throughout the world.

This week, thousands of anti-tobacco activists have gathered in San
Francisco for the National Conference on Tobacco or Health. Their work
has already produced many effective tobacco measures to reduce tobacco
use in the United States. Unfortunately, as smoking rates have declined
in this country, the tobacco industry has succeeded in addicting more
than a billion smokers in other countries.

Throughout the world, more than 50,000 children and adolescents become
addicted to tobacco each day; at least half of them will eventually die
from it. According to the World Health Organization, 500 million people
alive today, including 250 million children, will be killed by tobacco
use. If current trends continue, tobacco use will soon become the
world's leading cause of premature death. Where will it strike?
According to research by WHO's Alan Lopez, sub-Saharan Africa, China,
Southeast Asia, Latin America, and North Africa, along with Japan in the
industrialized world, will suffer sharp increases in deaths. About 70
percent of smoking deaths will occur in developing countries by 2030, up
from nearly 50 percent today. The tobacco pandemic will hit hardest the
poorest countries -- those least able to cope with it.

Should the United States care? Very much so. As a major tobacco producer
and home to some of the world's largest tobacco companies, we play a
significant part in exporting death. We have to ask ourselves if this is
an appropriate role for the world's greatest democracy. There are
pragmatic reasons as well. Soaring rates of tobacco-related disease and
death can cripple economic, social, and political development,
particularly in emerging nations. And that could seriously undermine
efforts to promote stability and security throughout the world.

What can be done? The most important step is to hammer out a tough
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The FCTC, being developed under
the auspices of WHO, would be the world's first treaty to reduce
tobacco-related death and disease. The American Cancer Society is urging
the United States to support strong provisions on international trade,
advertising and package

labeling. If we do not, both the FCTC and U.S. moral standing will
suffer. In the past, the United States has let concern for the profits
of the tobacco industry outweigh concerns for global health. The
political clout of the industry's campaign contributions and lobbying
have also had an impact -- tobacco companies spend $1 million a day to
lobby Congress when it's in session. We must not allow these influences
to shape our positions in the current treaty negotiations. If we can cut
adult tobacco consumption in half by 2020, we can save nearly 200
million lives over the next 50 years. If we don't, the world will
experience the greatest avoidable loss of health -- and life -- in
history.

John Seffrin is chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society
and president of the International Union Against Cancer.

***************************
Ross Hammond, Consultant
242 Edna Street
San Francisco, CA 94112-1807
USA
Tel.      1-415-452-9322
Fax.      1-415-680-2364
http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/campaign/global/


--
[ Converted text/html to text/plain ]
Dear Colleagues:

Please see below a number of recent articles from the US press on the neggotiations
on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), including an
extraordinary editorial from the Washington Post that appeared yesterday. It
has not been easy getting the US media interested in the issue, but we are
hoping that as the final round of negotiations approach in late February we
will have more and more success.

Cheers,
Ross


Mr. Bush and Tobacco - Washington Post

Editorial

Monday, November 25, 2002; Page A14

ORGANIZATIONS THAT violate U.S. sanctions on Iraq cannot usually expect
sympathy from the Bush administration. Nor can groups that collude with
Russian mobsters or Colombian drug gangs. If the allegations recently filed by
10 European governments in a New York district court have merit, R.J. Reynolds
Tobacco Holdings Inc. (RJR) has run a smuggling conspiracy involving all three
offenses. Even so, the Bush administration persists in siding with RJR and the
other cigarette giants in international tobacco-control negotiations convened
by the World Health Organization.

The smuggling allegations are based on information compiled by the 10
countries' law enforcement agencies. They suggest that RJR knowingly sold
large volumes of cigarettes to mobsters, partly because criminals can be
helpful in gaining access to some overseas markets, and partly because they
pay more than legitimate partners. The lawsuit also claims that: RJR obliged
the mobsters by removing marks and numbers from its products to prevent them
from being traced; the firm and its affiliates frequently switched bank
accounts to cover up their actions; and its smuggling operation in Iraq
yielded vast profits for Saddam Hussein's son, Uday. As well as selling a
product that kills people, RJR allegedly finances people who kill people. If
the suit succeeds, similar complaints against other tobacco majors are
expected.

Of course, the suit also may fail, and RJR's reputation may recover to its
former level. But that level is still pretty low. Tobacco causes 4.9 million
deaths a year and is expected to double its kill score by 2020. That marketing
advance will be achieved by hooking people least able to resist, especially
teenagers in poor countries. Already, worldwide one in seven children aged 13
to 15 smokes; two-thirds say they want to quit but can't, according to a study
by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer
Institute. By 2020 an estimated 70 percent of tobacco-related deaths will
occur in developing countries.

To combat this epidemic, the World Health Organization has sponsored
negotiations on a global tobacco-control treaty. The penultimate round
finished last month; the next and final one will take place in February. Most
of the participating countries support a range of sensible measures. Tobacco
advertising should be banned, except in countries (such as the United States)
where this would be unconstitutional. Tobacco-control measures should not be
subject to challenge on trade grounds, because trade rules should promote the
free exchange of goods, not bads, such as tobacco. Smuggling should be
suppressed wherever possible. Cigarette packs should carry prominent health
warnings, and misleading terms such as "light" and "mild" should be forbidden.
All these policies are common-sensical. And yet the Bush administration has
mostly dragged its feet. It needs to start lifting them.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34758-2002Nov24.html[1]

******************************************************************************************************************************************

David Lazarus, 20 November 2002, San Francisco Chronicle,  "U.S., pushed by
Philip Morris, stalling global ban on tobacco ads: U.S. wants world to choke
together "

Tobacco foes are gathering in San Francisco this week to discuss how a
multibillion-dollar global industry systematically murders its customers and
what can be done to stop it. One potential remedy, which will be a key focus
of talks today and Thursday at the Hilton Hotel, is a proposed international
treaty on tobacco controls, including a ban on cigarette ads. The treaty has
been in the works since 1999 and is scheduled for completion by May. This
could be a major step forward in preventing 5 million tobacco-related deaths a
year worldwide. Slick and sexy cigarette advertising is especially pernicious
in hooking young people on lifelong nicotine habits.

But the U.S. delegation to the treaty negotiations is digging in its heels,
insisting that there's no way it will accept a ban on tobacco ads, no matter
how flexibly the language is worded to accommodate the Bush administration's
concerns. Antismoking advocates say it's clear who's pulling the strings here
-- an interested party with everything to lose from restrictions on U.S.
cigarette producers hawking their deadly wares to the rest of the world:
Philip Morris, the world's largest tobacco company.

"The future of Philip Morris lies in the developing world," said Ross Hammond,
an activist affiliated with the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, an antitobacco
lobbying group. "It lies in China and India. That's why they won't tolerate
this." Indeed, while U.S. tobacco use is declining, Philip Morris said last
month that its international sales in the most recent quarter were up 2.3
percent and would have been even higher if the West Coast port lockout hadn't
disrupted shipments to smoke-happy Japan.

Hammond, who has attended the various sessions of the treaty negotiations in
Geneva, said representatives of Philip Morris have been seen lurking in the
wings and have made no secret of their opposition to a global ban on cigarette
ads. More importantly, the company has showered Republican politicians with
money to get its point across. According to public records, Philip Morris
contributed $2.7 million to Republican causes in the most recent election
cycle, compared with a risk-hedging $538,000 handed to the Democrats.

Since 1989, the company has lavished no less than $14.3 million on its
Republican friends, making it one of the the party's largest donors. "It's
very appropriate for us to be contributing our policy positions and being
involved in the political process," said Brendan McCormick, a Philip Morris
spokesman. As for the company's sway over the treaty talks, he said that "this
is a question best answered by the U.S. delegation."

The head of the delegation, Assistant Surgeon General Kenneth Bernard, did not
return a call seeking comment. Since the Bush administration took power, said
Hammond of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the U.S. delegation "has grown
much more hostile" toward hammering out a treaty that will actually have an
impact on global tobacco use. He said the delegation is also working behind
the scenes to pressure other nations -- particularly those desperate for U.S.
aid -- to toe the line in challenging an ad ban.

"The U.S. delegation wants to protect one of its largest campaign
contributors, which is the tobacco industry," Hammond said. "There's no other
logical reason to oppose the treaty as it looks now." He's referring to newly
drafted language submitted by European delegations that would allow
participating countries to ignore the ad ban if it violates existing
constitutional protections, such as the First Amendment. In other words,
Philip Morris and its cronies could still claim a free- speech prerogative to
reach for the throats of U.S. consumers, although they'd probably run into
roadblocks abroad.

"We're really out of touch with the rest of the world on this," said Susana
Hennessey Lavery of the San Francisco Tobacco-Free Project, an arm of the
city's Department of Public Health. "Most of the countries at the talks want a
complete ban on tobacco ads."

More than 160 nations are participating in the talks. Of this number, about
two-thirds are said to favor a ban on cigarette ads, particularly delegations
from Africa, Southeast Asia and Europe, where tobacco-related ailments
threaten to overwhelm medical resources. According to the World Health
Organization, the global death toll from smoking will top 10 million annually
within the next 30 years unless steps are taken to curb tobacco use. The
United States is joined by Germany and Japan -- two other nations with
powerful tobacco interests -- in opposing the ad ban. There is less division
on other key treaty issues, including efforts to curb smuggling of cigarettes
and standardize tobacco labeling. You may have noticed that Philip Morris
included a glossy insert in Sunday's newspaper touting the company's newfound
responsibility in dealing with tobacco issues.

"We agree with the overwhelming medical and scientific consensus that
cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and other
serious diseases in smokers," it says. "We agree with the overwhelming medical
and scientific consensus that cigarette smoking is addictive." But the company
apparently feels these aren't good reasons to enact a tough international
treaty to sharply reduce cigarette consumption. Philip Morris says online
(www.pmfctc.com) that it will only support a sensible treaty, which it defines
in part as one free of "bureaucratic rules that would make it impossible, as a
practical matter, for manufacturers to provide adults around the world with
affordable, high-quality cigarettes that they enjoy." Never mind that the
company freely admits these same cigarettes are addictive and potentially
lethal.

Philip Morris also says it is against any treaty that fosters "continued
acrimony rather than solutions that governments and industry members can
pursue together." Governments and the tobacco industry working together -- now
there's a recipe for clean living. Heck, why go to the trouble of ratifying a
treaty in the first place? In any case, at least as far as a ban on cigarette
ads goes, the position of the Bush administration is clear: over our dead
bodies. And that shouldn't take Philip Morris very long.

URL:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/11/20/BU35279.DTL[2]

Tobacco -- greatest weapon of mass destruction

John Seffrin , Wednesday, November 20, 2002, San Francisco Chronicle.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/1[3]

Every day, Americans pick up their newspapers and read about "weapons of mass
destruction." But the most effective weapon of mass destruction ever produced
and used by mankind is not a nuclear, biological or chemical weapon. The
world's biggest killer is the cigarette. Yes, the cigarette (promising to keep
you, as one ad says, "Alive with pleasure!") is the most effective killing
machine mankind has ever invented and actually put to use throughout the
world.

This week, thousands of anti-tobacco activists have gathered in San Francisco
for the National Conference on Tobacco or Health. Their work has already
produced many effective tobacco measures to reduce tobacco use in the United
States. Unfortunately, as smoking rates have declined in this   country, the
tobacco industry has succeeded in addicting more than a billion smokers in
other countries.

Throughout the world, more than 50,000 children and adolescents become
addicted to tobacco each day; at least half of them will eventually die from
it. According to the World Health Organization, 500 million people alive
today, including 250 million children, will be killed by tobacco use. If
current trends continue, tobacco use will soon become the world's leading
cause of premature death. Where will it strike? According to research by WHO's
Alan Lopez, sub-Saharan Africa, China, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and
North Africa, along with Japan in the industrialized world, will suffer sharp
increases in deaths. About 70 percent of smoking deaths will occur in
developing countries by 2030, up from nearly 50 percent today. The tobacco
pandemic will hit hardest the poorest countries -- those least able to cope
with it.

Should the United States care? Very much so. As a major tobacco producer and
home to some of the world's largest tobacco companies, we play a significant
part in exporting death. We have to ask ourselves if this is an appropriate
role for the world's greatest democracy. There are pragmatic reasons as well.
Soaring rates of tobacco-related disease and death can cripple economic,
social, and political development, particularly in emerging nations. And that
could seriously undermine efforts to promote stability and security throughout
the world.

What can be done? The most important step is to hammer out a tough Framework
Convention on Tobacco Control. The FCTC, being developed under the auspices of
WHO, would be the world's first treaty to reduce tobacco-related death and
disease. The American Cancer Society is urging the United States to support
strong provisions on international trade, advertising and package

labeling. If we do not, both the FCTC and U.S. moral standing will suffer. In
the past, the United States has let concern for the profits of the tobacco
industry outweigh concerns for global health. The political clout of the
industry's campaign contributions and lobbying have also had an impact --
tobacco companies spend $1 million a day to lobby Congress when   it's in
session. We must not allow these influences to shape our positions in the
current treaty negotiations. If we can cut adult tobacco consumption in half
by 2020, we can save nearly 200 million lives over the next 50 years. If we
don't, the world will experience the greatest avoidable loss of health -- and
life -- in history.

John Seffrin is chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society and
president of the International Union Against Cancer.

***************************
Ross Hammond, Consultant
242 Edna Street
San Francisco, CA 94112-1807
USA
Tel.      1-415-452-9322
Fax.      1-415-680-2364
http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/campaign/global/[4]

===References:===
  1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34758-2002Nov24.html
  2. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/11/20/BU35279.DTL
  3. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/1
  4. http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/campaign/global/

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