[Intl-tobacco] Asia: Guilt, guile and gore: Asian nations attack smoking differently

[robert.weissman@essentialinformation.org]

Guilt, guile and gore: Asian nations attack smoking differently
Taipei Times
May 22, 2004

The Japanese are polite about it, the Indonesians are laid-back, but
Malaysians have begun hitting below the belt. Across Asia, government
efforts to get citizens to stop smoking range from a nudge and a wink to
experiments with Western-style shock tactics.

The well-worn threat of an early death having apparently been shrugged off
by smokers as a small price to pay for the pleasures of the weed, Kuala
Lumpur is targeting their vanity. Men will become impotent, women will get
wrinkles and you'll all get horrible yellow teeth, Malaysia's puffers are
told in a news series of newspaper ads.

In Japan, warnings on cigarette packets take a gentler tone: "There is a
fear that it can damage your health, so let's be careful not to smoke too
much. Let's obey smoking manners." Despite the soft approach, the
percentage of Japanese who light up has been falling for about a decade, to
a record low of 30.3 percent, reflecting a worldwide trend towards less
smoking in wealthy countries.

But poorer countries in Asia reflect instead a WHO warning that "tobacco and
poverty are inextricably linked," with 75 percent of the world's smokers
living in developing nations. In Indonesia, some 70 percent of the
population smoke and the government, which raised some US$2.9 billion last
year from excise tax -- almost all of it from cigarettes -- does little to
discourage them. Instead it hopes to achieve an increase in excise tax
income not from increasing the retail price for cigarettes, but through
increased output by the tobacco industry.

Heavy taxation of cigarettes has long been a major weapon used by richer
countries to help wean their smokers from the habit, and would have an even
greater effect in poor nations. But while a packet of 20 Marlboro
cigarettes costs US$5.60 in Singapore, it costs just US$0.84 in nearby
Indonesia. Huge tobacco tax increases along with a ban on smoking in bars
have been credited with cutting the number of adult smokers in New York by
11 percent from 2002 to last year to just 19.3 percent, according to recent
city surveys.

But as smoking rates fall throughout the Western world, they are increasing
in Asian countries such as China. Many governments in the region have taken
new steps toward discouraging tobacco consumption, but these efforts often
do not amount to much more than lip service. In Pakistan a year-old ban on
smoking in public places is rarely observed, despite provision for fines of
up to US$1,700 for repeat offenders. Even the threat of three months in
jail for those selling cigarettes to minors -- possibly one of the world's
toughest penalties -- is ignored.

India, which has 240 million tobacco users, outlawed smoking in public
places this month, but police say they lack the personnel to enforce it.
Instead, restaurants pay off nosy officials, and smokers -- nearly 50
percent of the male population -- are now likely to be given the best seats,
with others escorted to "non-smoking areas" at the back.

China, whose 320 million smokers account for about one-quarter of the
world's total, makes some effort to stub out the habit. Measures include
banning tobacco advertising in newspapers and on television -- but a
non-smoking restaurant would be considered bizarre. China is the world's
largest producer and consumer of tobacco, and last year the industry paid
160 billion yuan (US$19.2 billion) in taxes.

Anti-smoking campaigners argue that such income is offset by the economic
price of tobacco use through health-care costs, lost productivity and
premature deaths, pointing to the fact that in the same year a million
Chinese died from smoking-related illnesses. The WHO says not only national
treasuries but also family budgets are hurt by smoking's costs, with a
recent survey in Vietnam showing that smokers spent three times more on
tobacco than on education and health care.

In the Philippines, smokers are estimated to spend 20 percent of their
household income on tobacco, and the government this year ordered that all
tobacco products must carry health warnings and banned celebrities from
endorsing cigarettes. One of the region's poorest countries, Bangladesh,
this month ratified the WHO's convention on tobacco control, which commits
it to passing a range of anti-smoking legislation.

In the past smoking had been seen as a low priority in a country beset by
poverty, but, delighted activists say, the government has recognized that
the two often go hand in hand. Social pressures have kept smoking rates low
among women in Asia, where it is often seen as unfeminine, but WHO reports
cite evidence suggesting increased smoking among young, affluent urban women
in some countries.

Which is apparently why Malaysia's ministry of health has brought wrinkles
into its new campaign, quoting research in the United States stating that
"women smokers have more facial wrinkling than non-smokers." Whether this,
and the threat to men that they will lose their virility, will be more
effective than telling them they will die of cancer remains to be seen.

Experience in the West points to governments picking the pockets of smokers
as the best way to get them to quit. New York health officials say they
believe the decline in smoking there has been caused primarily by higher
tobacco taxes, not bans or health warnings.