Tobacco: The ruthless killer next door 1

•Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye, a notable essayist and columnist says that smokers are burning their lungs...

Today, as I allow my mind to endure the oppressive thought that tobacco still remains the ruthless killer next door, what then shall we call its producers and distributors? The answer can only be simple and straightforward: They are people who prosper at the expense of other people’s lives. They make their billions by ruining other people’s health, and eventually terminating their lives. They should therefore not complain if anyone refers to them as proud, happy, licensed murderers

Packs of Killer Poison

How these people are able to deaden their conscience to go on prospering and sustaining their own lives by producing and marketing a scientifically confirmed poison whose only benefit is its ability to cruelly terminate the lives of their fellow human beings beats me hollow? Tobacco never adds even the tiniest value to life; it only destroys it completely. Without mercy. This is a fact nobody has even attempted to deny.

The Nigerian president should put the concern for the lives of many Nigerians above his often whispered personal tastes and habits and take another look at the massive freedom granted by his predecessor to tobacco companies to fill Nigeria with their neatly wrapped and attractively packaged killer poison called cigarettes. If he cannot immediately ban the production of cigarettes in Nigeria, he should, at least, put in place stricter regulations that would ensure that tobacco manufacturing would automatically become a very unprofitable venture in Nigeria. 

I call on Nigerians with lively conscience and genuine friends of Nigeria, to join this clearly winnable battle, to flush these heartless fellows out of Nigeria. The question I have always asked cigarette producers is: can they boldly come out in the open and assure me that the commodity they manufacture and distribute to hapless individuals cannot be rightly classified as poison? Again, they should tell me one single benefit the human body derives from smoking cigarettes. Has it not been convincingly proved everywhere, and publicly admitted even by tobacco producers, that tobacco is a merciless killer, an unrelenting cannibal that devours a man when his life is sweetest to him?  If then tobacco is a proven killer, can’t those who manufacture and circulate it in society be classified as murderers? Hasn’t even our own Federal Ministry of Health been shouting and warning us with passion, sense of urgency and alarm that TOBACCO SMOKERS ARE LIABLE TO DIE YOUNG?

What the Health Ministry here is saying is very simple: Anyone offering you a cigarette is only wishing you an untimely death. In fact, he is just saying to you: May you die young! That is exactly what tobacco companies, including the government that issued them the license to transact their deadly trade in Nigeria are wickedly wishing their Nigerian victims! Yes, tobacco companies manufacture products that make people to die young. How wicked and heartless could they be!

Before now, these tobacco companies would erect fresh, beautiful billboards, and fill several pages of newspapers and magazines with glossy adverts. Unfortunately, that option is no longer available to them, because of the ban on outdoor advertising of their lethal products. I am glad that those pleasant pictures of vivacious achievers smiling home with glittering laurels just because they were hooked to particular brands of cigarette which used to adorn glossy billboards and magazine pages, and which had proved irresistible baits to several people, especially youths, have now vanished from the public domain. 

As a youth, the elegant, gallant, athletic rodeo man whose image marketed the 555 brand of cigarette was my best idea of a handsome, hard-working winner. My friends and I admired him, carried his photographs about, and yearned to smoke 555 in order to grow up and become energetic and vivacious like him. One wonders how many youths that have been terminally impaired because they went beyond mere fantasies or obsession with their cigarette heroes and became chain-smokers and irredeemable addicts. Managers of tobacco adverts are so adept in this grand art of monumental deception that their victims never suspect any harm until they have willingly placed their heads on the slaughter slab. Indeed, only very few are able to look beyond the meretricious pictures and the pernicious pomp of cigarette promotional stunt and see the blood-curdling pictures of piecemeally ruined lungs and other sensitive organs, murky, chimney-like breath tracts and heart region, the looming merciless and spine-chilling fangs of an all devouring cancer, tuberculosis, sundry lung and heart diseases, and their associate unyielding killers. 

SOURCE

Group seeks quick passage of anti-tobacco bill

SOURCE: PUNCH, MONDAY 20TH, DECEMBER 2010

GROUP SEEKS QUICK PASSAGE OF ANTI-TOBACCO BILL

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria on Sunday stated that the passage of the National Tobacco Control Bill by the Senate was being stalled by the absence of the Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello.

The bill which, according to the group, was sponsored by Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora from Lagos State, was scheduled to be presented for third reading last Thursday but was stood down due to the absence of Obasanjo-Bello.

The bill has been in the Senate since 2008 and is a comprehensive law that will regulate the manufacture, sales, distribution and marketing of tobacco products in Nigeria.

A statement by ERA/FoEN’s Director (Corporate Accountability and Administration), Mr. Akinbode Oluwafemi, said it was disturbing that the bill had suffered another setback. The group urged the Senate to give it proper treatment.

He said it was a comprehensive law that would save the lives of millions of Nigerians, if passed.

Oluwafemi said, “We find it disturbing that the National Tobacco Control Bill should suffer this setback again. We think the Senate should accord the bill the importance it deserves. It is a comprehensive law that is designed to save millions of lives now and in the future.

“The tobacco control bill is a bill for the next generation and it should be treated with the utmost importance that it deserves. We are sad that once again, we seem to have missed a very important opportunity.”

Oluwafemi, however, praised the efforts made on the bill so far adding. “We salute the courage of the members of Senate who have worked on the bill in the last two years, we commend the maturity displayed by members of the health committee and especially the Senate President, David Mark, for his support. We hope the Senate will continue deliberations on the bill at the earliest opportunity.”

SOURCE

The African Tobacco Control Consortium Launches a Virtual Resource Centre for Tobacco Control

Lagos - The African Tobacco Control Consortium (ATCC), a coalition of public health organizations focused on preventing  the tobacco epidemic in Africa,  coordinated by the American Cancer Society in partnership with the Africa Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA), Africa Tobacco Control Regional Initiative (ATCRI) Framework Convention Alliance (FCA), Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK), and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) is unveiling its virtual resource centre today - http://www.africatobaccocontrol.org

 

Visitors to this multilingual website will find extensive information on a wide range of tobacco control issues and highlights on various happenings around tobacco control in the sub-Saharan African region. More so, the trilingual (English, French and Portuguese) website provides information about the different components of the ATCC project including grants, technical assistance and how it plans to support tobacco control advocates and organisations in this part of the continent.

Furthermore, this unique  one-stop e-warehouse for tobacco control resources  dedicated to sub-Saharan Africa houses a virtual library in which materials relevant to tobacco issues and its control specific to this region can be accessed. It is planned that the site will be interactive in the nearest future in order to stimulate debates on current and pertinent tobacco control issues, as well as provide space for experience sharing among tobacco control stakeholders in the region.

Above all, the site shall be updated regularly and shall highlight tobacco control profiles of the 46 countries of the sub-Saharan African region as defined by WHO as well as offer an in-depth knowledge on each country through collated researches and studies. 

Reducing tobacco-related deaths in Africa

-Alexander Chiejina

As stakeholders advocate passage of Nigeria Tobacco Control Bill

African nations seem poised to undergo the highest increase in the rate of tobacco use among developing countries. This is as about 90 percent of people on the continent, perhaps, remain without meaningful protection from second-hand smoke.

Earlier this year, it was estimated that smoking will claim the lives of six million people globally in 2010, 72 percent of whom reside in low and middle-income countries, Nigeria inclusive. However, it is believed that if current trends continue, tobacco may kill seven million people annually by 2020 and more than eight million people annually by 2030.

Following health risks associated with tobacco consumption, which according to health experts is the second leading cause of death (after hypertension) and currently responsible for the death of one in 10 adults globally, experts are of the view that enacting effective policies towards reducing tobacco consumption in Nigeria will go a long way in saving the lives of people.

In an interview with BusinessDay, Akinbode Oluwafemi, programme manager, Environmental Rights in Nigeria/ Friends of the Earth, said cigarette contains about 4000 toxic and cancer-causing chemicals which are responsible for most cases of lung cancer.

While acknowledging the fact that smoking causes various forms of cancer, Akinbode noted that measures aimed at reducing smoking in Europe and America has driven the tobacco industry to developing countries like Nigeria, where the industry continues to flout regulations, marketing to young and impressionable youths, and ity, there is the need for Nigeria to key into WHO”s FCTC which seeks to protect people from the consequences of tobacco consumption by reducing the demand for and supply of tobacco, call for stronger tax and price measures, regulation of tobacco advertisements and the introduction of strong health messages on tobacco packages, adopting protective measures against exposure to tobacco smoke, the lives of Nigerians would greatly be protected.

It is noteworthy to state that in about less than two years, Kenya and Niger Republic enacted national smoke-free policies, and South Africa, which has been smoke-free since 2007, demonstrated that smoke-free laws could work in Africa. In what seemed as a first for the region, Mauritius recently passed a law that hooking them on smoking.

“Several African countries are fighting against the tobacco industry‘s aggressive campaigns to stop public health interventions by putting smoke-free laws into place, probably protecting more than 100 million more people since 2007. Smoke-free public places are one example of a low-cost and extremely effective intervention that must be implemented now to protect health,” he observed.

For Tosin Orogun, programme manager, Africa Tobacco Control Regional Initiative, Nigeria, “the World Health Organisation insists that strong worldwide enforcement and implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) could save 200 million lives by the year 2050.”

Orogun stated that though Nigeria signed the FCTC, which had been ratified by over 168 countries since 2005, there have been deaths relating to tobacco, especially cancer.

As parties to the global tobacco treaty begin their biennial meeting in Uruguay, the African Tobacco Control Consortium (ATCC), a coalition of global and African public health organisations focused on preventing the tobacco epidemic in Africa, there is the need to ensure that adoption of effective guidelines on Article 9 & 10 of WHO’s FCTC which seeks to promote smoke- free environment which tobacco multinationals’ are alleging to scuttle.

At the moment, only Osun, Cross River States and the Federal Capital Territory have passed the law prohibiting people from smoking tobacco in the public in Nigeria. Giving this realCancer

and challenge of management in Nigeriais close to meeting the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control standards, ranking among the most robust anti-smoking measures in the world.

The National Tobacco Control Bill (NTCB), which seeks to prohibit tobacco smoking in places and is now before the National Assembly, saw over 45 non-governmental organisations (NGOs), including local and international organisations, making presentations in support of the bill.

Since the Public Hearing in July 2009, Nigerians and other stakeholders in public health including Babatunde Osotimehin, former health minister; Umar Modibbo, former FCT minister, Nigerians are expecting Senator Iyabo-Obasanjo Bello, chairman, Committee on Health at the National Assembly to return the bill to plenary for adoption. But for how long will the hope of 150 million people be eventually realised?

Stakeholders are of the view that when the bill is passed and enforced, two outcomes are possible: The level of national savings will increase and other forms of consumption expenditure will be substituted for tobacco expenditure.

Studies in several countries have examined the potential economic impact of the complete elimination of tobacco use and production. The evidence shows that elimination of tobacco will not affect the economy. This is because tobacco use has many externalised costs (costs not paid for by smokers or tobacco manufacturers). This involves healthcare costs incurred by governments to take care of smoking -related diseases.

When people no longer spend their money on tobacco, they will spend their money on other things. This alternative spending will stimulate other sectors of the economy. If the money is saved rather than spent, the increased savings are likely to have stimulatory macroeconomic effects.

SOURCE

HEALTH WINS, TOBACCO INDUSTRY FAILS

Barring a last-minute problem in plenary today, delegates can go home with the satisfaction of having collectively stood up to the biggest tobacco industry assault on the FCTC process that we have seen to date.

Over the last year, the tobacco industry has orchestrated a global public relations campaign to head off adoption of (partial) guidelines on Articles 9 & 10. This involved outlandish claims that “WHO bureaucrats” were trying to ban burley tobacco, or that restrictions on additives used to make cigarettes attractive to children would put burley farmers out of business.

In the end, despite the press conferences, “studies” and extensive lobbying by the industry and its front groups, despite the demonstrations outside the conference venue, Parties were not fooled. After some drama last night in Committee A, they found compromise language to satisfy China and the guidelines were accepted.

Shortly thereafter came a second victory for tobacco control: Committee A accepted the idea of a working group on Article 6, which deals with price and tax measures. The European Union, which had opposed the idea only 24 hours earlier, not only bowed to the collective will of numerous developing countries but announced it would participate in the group, possibly even as a key facilitator. China and Japan, the only other opponents, dropped their objections without comment.

This is potentially a major gain for the FCTC: the working group should help integrate finance ministries into tobacco control. Tobacco tax increases are the single most effective short-term measure to reduce tobacco consumption, but are often blocked by lack of awareness in finance ministries of the added revenue (and public health gains) to be made. Of course, setting up the working group is only the first step – now delegates will have to work hard to ensure the right people get sent to the meetings, and we can assume the tobacco industry will lobby very hard, at COP-5 or COP-6, against the adoption of strong and effective Article 6 guidelines.

As Committee A drew to a close, there were further gains, with the important decision to initiate work on Article 19 to support Parties in effective liability strategies, as well as steps forward in the FCTC reporting system.

With these victories, as well as the approval of Articles 12 and 14 guidelines and measures to combat tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship on Thursday, Committee A delegates can go home tired but satisfied.

Committee B delegates have a little more work to do. While progress was made yesterday, with the adoption of important decisions on financial resources, mechanisms of assistance and international co-operation, and South- South co-operation, a final decision on the budget must be made this morning. Substantial lack of clarity in last night's session will make this a difficult task.

But there were also encouraging signs, with extra budgetary contributions announced and a creative solution found to make up the US$600,000 deficit expected in the proposed zero nominal increase budgets. Today, Committee B is urged to adopt a budget that matches Committee A's commitment and supports the vision of the FCTC.

-Extracted from the FCA COP 4 bulletin – issue 110 (front page)

New report exposes how tobacco companies undermine WHO health policy : Uruguay proposes resolution calling for unity in face of tobacco industry interference

 A new investigative report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

 exposes a wide range of tactics employed by the tobacco industry to undermine advances being made by the global tobacco treaty – Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Threats to health policy include aggressive lobbying and legal intimidation, to charitable donations and even outright payoffs.

Even as Parties- including delegates from Nigeria’s ministry of health and other countries are discussing how to overcome such obstacles – the primary threat in advancing a treaty the World Health Organization projects could save 200 million lives by 2050 – industry tactics have followed countries to this week’s treaty negotiations in Uruguay.

Not only are dozens of tobacco industry representatives from Philip Morris and British America Tobacco (BAT) crowding the halls of the negotiation each day, they are also playing a role in the seating of delegates in attendance. These delegates are the eyes, ears, and voice piece of an industry that has otherwise been prohibited from directly participating in the negotiations and health policy under a core provision of the treaty.

One example is Zimbabwe, a non-Party observer. Despite being cash strapped the country somehow mustered the funds to send 10 delegates to Uruguay days after a prominent tobacco industry front group disparaged guidelines being negotiated this week to the Wall Street Journal. To put this in perspective, more than 35 ratifyingcountries were unable to send even a single representative. Worse, though the treaty requires that health policies and negotiations being protective from “commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry,” Zimbabwe’s delegation includes representatives from the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board, as well as ministries whose priority is either trade or agriculture.

“A reminder is needed that we are here to devise solutions to save people’s lives,” said Sam Ochieng of the Network for Accountability of Tobacco Trans-nationals and Consumer Information Network Kenya. “Progress is not possible if the long arm of industry is able to reach into and manipulate a conversation that rightly excludes Big Tobacco.”

“The report by the International Consortium of Investigative  Journalists is revealing. It is not surprising that Philip Morris is instituting a suit against the Uruguay government for introducing warning labels on cigarettes sold in the country or the presence of tobacco industry representatives in the halls during negotiations. Parties must however be be vigilant to the avowed intentions of the industry to fight provisions that prohibit them from interfering in the process,” said Philip Jakpor of Environmental Rights Action. 

Tobacco growing countries like Zimbabwe may be the most brazen, but are not unique when it comes to sending representatives from ministries whose objectives may be at odds with the treaty’s guiding principle that the public’s health be prioritized over trade. Of the 438 Party delegates listed in the provisional list of participants, 74 delegates represent ministries other than health. Egregious examples include Macedonia’s delegation which has no health ministry representation. Of its 19 member delegation, China sent five delegates from its state-owned tobacco corporation.

While some non-health ministries may have legitimate reason for inclusion in a delegation, such as representation from finance ministries in anticipation of discussions regarding tobacco taxation; for others such appointments further expose the primary obstacle to treaty implementation – the fact that industry has a voice it shouldn’t within government in deciding health policy.      

“This is not to say the vast majority of countries here are not acting with integrity, just that parties must be unified in challenging tobacco industry interference for the treaty to progress,” said Corporate Accountability International’s Latin America Director Yul Francisco Dorado.

In this vein, Uruguay has proposed a resolution calling for parties to stand together in confronting the manner of legal intimidation it and other countries are now facing from Philip Morris International.

Corporate Accountability International and its partners which ERA is part of, are pushing for the inclusion of a provision giving the secretariat representing the parties to the treaty a voice during legal proceedings.

FULL REPORT

‘Tobacco-induced death on the rise worldwide’

Deaths from diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV/AIDs and malaria are declining while those induced by tobacco consumption are on the increase.

This was disclosed at the weekend by Thomas Frieden, director of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, USA, while delivering a lecture at the 41st Union World Conference on Lung Health in Berlin, Germany. He said this trend could be reversed if governments across the world take actions to stem the tide. Among the steps he recommended were the imposition of heavy tax on cigarettes, adherence to and the implementation of steps laid out in the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

The Framework is the first health treaty negotiated under the auspices of the World Health Organisation (WHO). It was adopted by the World Health Assembly seven years ago and entered into force in 2005. It has since become one of the most widely embraced treaties in UN history with about 171 parties. Mr Frieden said it is unfortunate that tobacco has wreaked so much havoc on the human race when death and illness from it could be curbed. He advised governments to impose yearly heavy taxes on tobacco industries as a way of making the commodity expensive and out of the reach of the people.

According to the WHO, tobacco is the leading cause of death, illness and impoverishment, adding that its “use is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced. It kills more than five million people a year - an average of one person every six seconds - and accounts for one in 10 adult deaths. Up to half of current users will eventually die of a tobacco-related disease.” Mr Frieden said all efforts must be made to reverse this dreadful trend.

Also speaking at another event at the conference, Nils Billo, Executive Director of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) made a case for more money to be invested in the fight against tuberculosis (TB) so as to curb the drug-resistant epidemic of the disease. He observed that there are increasing reports that TB drugs are going out of stocks in several countries and this could lead to a drug-resistant epidemic.

Poor man’s burden

Anthony Harris, an advisor at The Union said poverty and malnutrition have strong links to TB and that the poor are usually at greater risks. Lee Reichman, a professor of medicine at the New Jersey Medical School of Global Tuberculosis Institute, who described TB as “forgotten but not gone” disease said the it could be eliminated because its cause was known. According to him, “More people died from TB last year than any year in history.” Mr Harris added that in the last 10 years there have been 300 million infections, 90 million cases and over 30 million deaths. He regretted that TB kills about 1.7million people per year yet not much attention was being paid to it compared to SARS which killed 813, Avian influenza (6250), anthrax (5) and small pox which killed no one.

He also said the cure for TB has remained a sort of mirage due to economic considerations because it is not a disease that fetches big money.

“Nobody seems to care. This wouldn’t be tolerated for any other disease. Why does TB still infect one-third of the world’s population and remain a global threat despite the fact that highly cost-effective drugs are available to eradicate it?,” he said.

The ongoing Union World Conference is the largest annual conference focusing on lung health issues as they affect low and middle-income countries. It is organised each year by the Paris-based International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. Some 2,500 delegates from more than 100 countries are attending.

SOURCE

HHS announces new tobacco strategy and proposed new warnings and graphics for cigarette packs and advertisements

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today unveiled a new comprehensive tobacco control strategy that includes proposed new bolder health warnings on cigarette packages and advertisements.  Once final, these health warnings on cigarettes and in cigarette advertisements will be the most significant change in more than 25 years.  These actions are part of a broader strategy that will help tobacco users quit and prevent children from starting.
 Tobacco use is the leading cause of premature and preventable death in the United States, responsible for 443,000 deaths each year.  Thirty percent of all cancer deaths are due to tobacco.  Each day 1,200 lives of current and former smokers are lost prematurely due to tobacco-related diseases.
“Every day, almost 4,000 youth try a cigarette for the first time and 1,000 youth become regular, daily smokers,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “Today marks an important milestone in protecting our children and the health of the American public.”
The strategy includes a proposal issued by the Food and Drug Administration titled Required Warnings for Cigarette Packages and Advertisements. Specifically, the proposed rule details a requirement of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act that nine new larger and more noticeable textual warning statements and color graphic images depicting the negative health consequences of smoking appear on cigarette packages and in cigarette advertisements.  The public has an opportunity to comment on 36 proposed images through January 9, 2011.    
By June 22, 2011, FDA will select the final nine graphic and textual warning statements after a comprehensive review of the relevant scientific literature, the public comments, and results from an 18,000 person study.  Implementation of the final rule (September 22, 2012) will ultimately prohibit companies from manufacturing cigarettes without new graphic health warnings on their packages for sale or distribution in the United States.  In addition, manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers will no longer be allowed to advertise cigarettes without the new graphic health warnings in the United States.  By October 22, 2012, manufacturers can no longer distribute cigarettes for sale in the United States that do not display the new graphic health warnings. 
“Today, FDA takes a crucial step toward reducing the tremendous toll of illness and death caused by tobacco use by proposing to dramatically change how cigarette packages and advertising look in this country.  When the rule takes effect, the health consequences of smoking will be obvious every time someone picks up a pack of cigarettes,” said FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D. ” This is a concrete example of how FDA’s new responsibilities for tobacco product regulation can benefit the public’s health.”
The FDA action is part of a broad department-wide strategy that was announced by Assistant Secretary for Health Howard K. Koh, M.D., MPH.  While progress has been made, smoking remains particularly high with low-income and within certain racial/ethnic groups and in certain populations, including people with mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders.  Ending the Tobacco Epidemic: A Tobacco Control strategic Action Plan outlines specific, evidence-based actions that will help create a society free of tobacco-related death and disease. 
“We are at an unprecedented time in our nation’s history to protect the public’s health from tobacco use, the leading cause of preventable, premature death in the United States,” said Dr. Koh. “It will take renewed commitment from every sector of society to end the tobacco epidemic.” 
In addition to the announcements made today, other recent tobacco control and prevention efforts include:

• The Affordable Care Act is giving Americans in private and public health plans access to recommended preventive care, like tobacco use cessation, at no additional cost.
• The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) invested $225 million to support local, state and national efforts to promote comprehensive tobacco control and expand tobacco quitlines.
• The Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act (PACT) aims to stop the illegal sale of tobacco products over the Internet and through mail order, including the illegal sale to youth.
• The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (FSPTCA) gives FDA the authority to regulate the manufacture, marketing and distribution of tobacco products.  Significant progress has already been made by restricting the use of  the terms “light,” “low,” and “mild,”  banning characterizing fruit, candy, and spice, flavors from cigarettes, and putting in place restrictions on the sale and distribution of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products to youth.
• The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) raised the federal cigarette tax by 62 cents per pack.  Raising the price of tobacco products is a proven way to reduce tobacco use, especially among price-sensitive populations such as youth.

SOURCE

TOBACCO CONTROL GROUPS RAISE ALARM OVER TOBACCO INDUSTRY’s ATTACKS ON FCTC UNDER GUISE OF PROTECTING FARMERS

Lagos, November 5, 2010 - As Parties to the global tobacco treaty prepare for their biennial meeting in Uruguay, the African Tobacco Control Consortium (ATCC *), a coalition of global and African public health organizations focused on preventing the tobacco epidemic in Africa, is raising the alarm against tobacco multinationals’ tactics to hinder the adoption of effective guidelines on Article 9 & 10 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

In recent months an organization claiming to represent tobacco growers worldwide has been publicly lobbying against items on the agenda of the Fourth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the FCTC (COP 4). The International Tobacco Growers Association (ITGA), a public relations vehicle created by the tobacco industry in the 1980s to front its lobbying efforts against international tobacco control initiatives, has been focusing on draft guidelines that recommend countries “restrict or prohibit” flavorings added to tobacco to make it more palatable, especially to young smokers and potential smokers. Similarly, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) is calling on its 19 members to oppose what it calls “a ban on non-tobacco ingredients used in producing cigarettes”.

According to the ITGA, the guidelines on flavorings if adopted would effectively ban burley, a type of tobacco popular in "American-style‟ cigarettes. Burley is grown widely in the developing world, –and the ITGA is telling farmers there that the guidelines would have a catastrophic impact on their jobs and livelihoods by resulting in a shortage in the demand for leaves. “What the ITGA fails to mention is that burley cigarettes continue to be sold in countries that are already restricting tobacco flavorings,” said Laurent Huber, Director of the Framework Convention Alliance (FCA), a global alliance of more than 350 civil society organizations working for the FCTC. “It is also a fact that the economies of countries dependent on tobacco for foreign exchange, such as Malawi and Zimbabwe, have remained poor and suffering economic woes. Tobacco farming does not alleviate poverty,” he added.

The African Tobacco Control Consortium strongly encourages African Parties to the FCTC to resist any attempt by the tobacco industry to manipulate them. ATCC therefore calls on all African delegates heading to COP 4 to support the adoption of the draft guidelines on Articles 9 and 10 without change.

From 15-20 November, Uruguay will host the Fourth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the FCTC, which now has 171 Parties, representing 89% of the world’s population.

Smokers: They die...but remain addictive

Nigeria Tobacco Control Bill, the world is watching

-AKINSHOLA OWOEYE

The lackadaisical attitude of our lawmakers on the National Tobacco Control Bill (NTCB) has generated concern among serious-minded Nigerians within and outside the country. The Senate Committee on Health chaired by Senator Iyabo-Obasanjo Bello was given two weeks by Senate President David Mark to produce a report on the Public Hearing organised by the same Committee. But the Committee is yet to produce the report for adoption at the plenary of the Senate.

The action of the lawmakers calls for obvious questions, such as 'when would the bill be passed?' Would the law makers allow the tobacco industry to continue to exploit the innocent youths? How long would it take the lawmakers to pass a crucial bill that has to do with health? No one can deny the dangerous effects of tobacco use. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), tobacco currently kills 5.4 million people every year globally, and if left unchecked, this number will increase to 8 million with devastating results for developing countries like Nigeria which will contribute about 70 percent of that casualty. In the 20th century, the tobacco epidemic killed 100 million people, and according to WHO estimates, it could kill one billion people in the 21st century.

The Public Hearing was an eye-opener for Nigerians, including David Mark, and participants. Over 45 Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), including local and international organisations, made presentations in support of the bill. Since the Public Hearing in July 2009, Nigerians and others stakeholders in public health including Babatunde Osotimehin, former health minister; Umar Modibbo, former FCT minister and Kayode Soyinka, WHO representative, among other eminent Nigerians, have waited for Senator Iyabo-Obasanjo Bello's committee to return the bill to plenary for adoption. But the wait and hope of 150 million people seem dashed.

If the bill is passed and enforced, two outcomes are possible: The level of national savings will increase and other forms of consumption expenditure will be substituted for tobacco expenditure. Studies in several countries have examined the potential economic impact of the complete elimination of tobacco use and production. The evidence shows that elimination of tobacco will not affect the economy. This is because tobacco use has many externalised costs (costs not paid for by smokers or tobacco manufacturers). This involves healthcare costs incurred by governments to take care of smoking -related diseases. When people no longer spend their money on tobacco, they will spend their money on other things. This alternative spending will stimulate other sectors of the economy. If the money is saved rather than spent, the increased savings are likely to have stimulatory macroeconomic effects.

But our government's lack of attention in calculating the economic losses of tobacco has contributed largely to the expansion of BAT in Nigeria. In 2006, a survey from 11 government- owned hospitals in Lagos State revealed that at least two persons die of a tobacco-related disease daily. It also revealed that same year, there were 9750 tobacco-related cases reported in these hospitals. To that end, the state averred that it spent N222, 000 subsidising the cost of treatment of each tobacco-related case. Each individual, the report said, also spends an additional N70, 000 treating the same disease. From the foregoing, the Lagos economy lost N2, 847,000,000. Note that this amount is higher in the northern parts of Nigeria where the smoking prevalence doubles that in the south.

The second outcome has to do with loss of production, an aspect which has not been fully addressed. There are three ways in which smoking affects production: one, it reduces life expectancy - thus the productive years of workers; secondly, it increases the number of the permanently disabled who will end up as a burden to our social system - consuming more and producing nothing. Thirdly, it increases absenteeism from work as a result of intermittent illnesses. Smoking, through its adverse health effects, reduces the quantity of goods and services produced and thus reduces the society's consumption potential.

The world is watching the efforts of those who have contributed tirelessly to this bill, and also those who would rather watch the country engulfed in a preventable epidemic. No contribution to the public health debate will be forgotten in a hurry. Nature will not forget in hurry too. To redeem our name is to save peoples' lives by passing into law the bill to regulate the activities of tobacco companies.

SOURCE

Group urges NASS on Tobacco Bill

-Mahmud Lalo

 

 

 Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth (ERA/FoEN) has called on the National Assembly to pass the National Tobacco Control Bill into law, saying further delay could lead to the loss of more lives in the country.

A statement by the organization’s Head of Media, Philip Jakpor, said the non-passage of the bill was responsible for smoking among young people in the country as reflected in the recently released Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS).

“While we acknowledge the commitment of the Senate to the delivery of good governance and promotion of public health, your intervention and further action to save the bill will be appreciated. It is now time to act to save the lives of our youths,” he said.

 SOURCE

Smoking - 250 Toxic Chemicals Identified

Yinka Kolawole

Osogbo — A medical health researcher with the College of Health Sciences , Osun State University , Dr. Olanrewaju Onigbogi, has identified 250 chemicals that are toxic and carcinogenic in nature to human health that are endemic in smoking.
According to him, second hand smoke equally causes respiratory discomfort and allergic symptoms on the short term and cardiovascular disease respiratory illness, and lung cancer which is responsible for an estimate of 40,000 deaths in non smokers annually in Africa .
Consequently, to reduce the danger inherent in smoking, the researcher has called on government to enforce a law that would make it mandatory on management of public institutions to designate clearly marked "No smoking" areas in enclosed spaces and encourage clients to keep the laws.
The health researcher, who made the call yesterday at the public presentation of result of Survey of Second Hand Smoking Status (SUSHS) conducted in September, 2010 in Osogbo, Ilesa and Ile-Ife all metropolitan towns in Osun State, said air quality of smoking was monitored by using the TSI SidePak AM510 Personal Aerosol Monitor (TSI, Saint Paul, Minnesota).
He noted that though smoking could be restricted to open air places in the hospitality industry yet, partially enclosed spaces are still dangerous to the health of the workers and should therefore not be encouraged.
Dr. Onigbogi opined that 44.1% of the people are aware of any law prohibiting tobacco smoking in public places in Nigeria while 34.1% were aware of similar law through radio and television adding that short-term exposures to secondhand smoke may increase the risk of heart attack.
He however insisted that secondhand smoke causes long and short term health risks saying that no level of secondhand smoke are safe and should therefore be eliminated in all public places.
According to him, "eliminating smoking in indoor spaces fully protects nonsmokers from exposure to secondhand smoke, separating smokers from nonsmokers, cleaning the air, and ventilating building cannot eliminate exposure of nonsmokers to second smoke".
The researcher noted that 81.8% have expressed support for the current measure at enforcing the tobacco control law particularly in Osun State while 84.2% supported the introduction of additional measures in terms of enforcement and implementation of tobacco control law in Osun State .

ERA petitions Senate President on Tobacco Bill

By Omafume Amurun

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has implored Senate President, David Mark to follow through his remarks last year on the readiness of the Senate to speedily pass the National Tobacco Control Bill (NTCB) into law, cautioning that further delay on the draft legislation will cost the nation more lives.
ERA/FoEN, in a petition to the Senate President made available to the Niger Delta Standard today 11th October, 2010  and signed by its Executive Director, Pastor Nnimmo Bassey, the group urged the Nigerian government to sanction the British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) for targeting young Nigerians in a bid to recruit them as replacement smokers through glamorization of smoking and ‘secret smoking parties’ held in Abuja, Lagos and other parts of the country.
According to the environmental justice group, the non passage of the Bill was responsible for the increased rate of smoking among young people in Nigeria as reflected in the recently released Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) and the mammoth sum that most states are now paying for healthcare of victims of tobacco-related illnesses.
The National Tobacco Control Bill, sponsored by Senator Olorunimbe Mamora went for Public Hearing July 2009 and received overwhelming support from members of the house but the report of that Hearing was yet to be returned to the Senate plenary for eventual passage into a law.
“The result of the Global Youth Tobacco Survey conducted in some states recently which revealed that many more school children fantasize smoking is indeed telling of what the tobacco companies have done to the psyche of our youth. In some areas in Adamawa State the youth smoking rate was put   to 33.9 percent, a very disturbing trend,” said ERA/FoEN Executive Director, Pastor Bassey.
According to Pastor Bassey, “It is saddening that even after the complimentary comments of the Senate President, who declared last year that action will be taken on the Bill within two weeks of the Public Hearing, nothing has happened even after a year.
ERA ‘s position is further reinforced by the fact that as Party to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the Nigerian government owes its citizens an obligation to domesticate the treaty.”
‘While we acknowledge the commitment of the Senate to the delivery of good governance and promotion of public health, your intervention and further actions to save the bill will be appreciated. It is now time to act to save the lives of our youth that now stand threatened by the activities of BATN and other tobacco merchants,” Pastor Bassey noted.
Among others recommendations, ERA is praying the Senate to, as a matter of national urgency commence debate on the report of the Public Hearing and pass the Bill into law

 SOURCE

NATIONAL TOBACCO CONTROL BILL - IT MUST BE LAW!

PASS THE NATIONAL TOBACCO CONTROL BILL NOW

ERA calls for passage of tobacco control bill into law

ERA petitions Mark on Tobacco Bill

Pass Tobacco Control Bill, NGO Urges NASS

—Adeyera Olubunmi

A non-government organisation, NGO,  based in Ogba, Lagos State, Environmental Rights  Action, has called on the National Assembly to pass the National Tobacco Control Bill  into law without further delay.

Addressing a press conference to mark the 10th International Week of Resistance Against  Tobacco in Lagos on Monday, the NGO’s director of corporate accountability compaigns, Mr.  Akinbode Oluwafemi accused a particular tobacco firm which controls about 80 per cent of  the market of continued threat and misleading the yoouth into consumption of tobacco.

Akinbode claiemd that the tobacco company arranged secret smoking parties in different  parts of Nigeria especially in Ajegunle and Victoria Island in Lagos State. He said the  company was planning more tobacco smoking parties during the Yuletide from November this  year.

Akinbode said the tobacco companies have been lobbying political office holders with  partnership on public health issues, pretending to help farmers, retailers in order to  frustrate the passage of the law on tobacco control.

“It is important that while youth smoking continues to be on the increase, tobacco  companies continues to addict our youth they organise all over the country yet the  tobacco control bill is presently lying idle before the NASS,” Akinbode regretted. He  urged members of the NASS to be wary of the tobacco companies before they kill more of  our youth through uncontrolled consumption of tobacco.

 SOURCE

Youth Cautioned On Tobacco Addiction

-Zacheaus Somorin

Youths around the country have been warned to desist from smoking as the world marks the International Week of Resistance. At a press briefing held in Lagos, the Director, Cooperate Accountability Campaign and Administration, Environmental Rights Action (ERA), Mr. Akinbode Oluwafemi, stated that this year's event is aimed building momentum in the run-up to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) meetings in Uruguay in November.

The meetings are planned for a unified, international action to prevent the tobacco industry from derailing the FCTC's lifesaving measures.
He stated that "FCTC entered into force in 2005 and has since been ratified by more than 170 countries, representing close to 90 per cent of the world's population" saying that the "treaty aims to reverse an epidemic that today claims the life of one in 10 adults".
He explained further that "the single greatest obstacle to the treaty's success is tobacco industries' interference in public health policy - a practice that Article 5.3 of the treaty effectively forbids".

"Smoking especially among youths in Nigeria over the last few years has continued to rise. A survey conducted in 2001 shows that 9.1 per cent of Nigerian youths smoke cigarette. The figure by another survey conducted in 2008 has jumped to between 17 per cent and 27 per cent.Akinbode stated that the report on Global Tobacco Treaty Action Guide is intended to keep governments alert and make them anticipate and thwart attempts by the vested commercial interests of the tobacco industry to undermine the implementation of tobacco control policies. He said further that the report reinforces the need for governments to insulate their public health policies from interference by tobacco companies.
"In fact, a recent survey in four local governments of Adamawa state put smoking rate among the youth at 33.9 per cent. While smoking rate has been on the increase the Senate has been foot-dragging in passing the National Tobacco Control Bill," he posited, calling on the National Assembly to pass the National Tobacco Control Bill.

SOURCE

ERA raises alarm over smoking parties in Lagos

Implementation of tobacco treaty will save 200m people –Report

-Mahmud Lalo

 

No fewer than 200 million people in the world will be saved by the year 2050 if the tobacco treaty is implemented, a report by the Environmental Rights Action, Friends of the Earth, Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) and Corporate Accountability International has said.

The report also alleged tobacco companies interference in the implementation of the global tobacco treaty formally known as the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

“Tobacco companies interference remains the single greatest obstacle to this objective and a centerpiece of discussion at the November meeting,” the report said.

Director of Corporate Accountability International, Gigi Kellet, said tobacco companies initially tried to bully the global community out of advancing the treaty and that it is now attempting to bully countries out of enforcing it.

According to the report, each year, tobacco kills more than five million people and that 80 per cent of the victims are in underdeveloped countries.

SOURCE

Tobacco firms impede implementation of FCTC, says ERA

ERA seeks passage of tobacco bill

-BY MICHAEL ORIE

THE Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) yesterday called on the National Assembly to pass into law the National Tobacco Control Bill, saying its delay has further promoted the activity of tobacco industries in the country.
    The call was made in the wake of the 10th International Week of the Resistance Against Tobacco Transnational, to expose the ever-evolving tactics of the tobacco industry to undermine public health through its lethal products.
   According to the Director, Accountability Campaigns and Administration, Environmental Rights Action, Oluwafemi Akinbode, the bill had been foot-dragging for the past two years without a particular reason for the delay.
  “We have an increase worries on why the bill has not been passed, as there is a clear indication the delay might have a political undertone,” he said.
   The one-week event that started yesterday is aimed at building momentum in the run-up to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) meetings in Uruguay in November this year for a unified international action to prevent the tobacco industry from derailing the FCTC’s life-saving measures.
    Akinbode, to prove the menace the delay has caused, said “in solidarity with our allies and NGOs across the globe taking part in several actions to expose some of the tobacco industry tactics to undermine the FCTC, ERA/FoEN has released a report from tobacco industry watchdog  – Corporate Accountability International – documenting persistent and ongoing efforts to obstruct the FCTC on the African continent and around the world. The report points to tobacco industry interference as the single greatest obstacle to the treaty realising its full potential.”
   He added that the report is intended to keep governments alert and make them anticipate and thwart attempts by the vested commercial interests of the tobacco industry to undermine the implementation of tobacco control policies.
   According to Akinbode,  Nigeria which is among the first few countries that signed the FCTC in 2004 and ratified it in 2005 is still foot-dragging in totally domesticating the treaty through the National Tobacco Control Bill which was hailed by local and international groups at the public hearing organised by the Senate Committee on Health in July 2009 as a step to curbing “the gale of deaths which tobacco has wrought on this nation.”
“British America Tobacco (BAT) which controls over 80 per cent of the Nigerian cigarette market has continued to undermine the treaty by deliberate misinformation and illicit actions targeted at the youth.  For instance, in the last two months the company has held several secret smoking parties targeted at new smokers. Two of such parties were held in Ajegunle and Victoria Island, both in Lagos, and the company has announced plans to seize the opportunity of the upcoming yuletide to organise more.” 
   According to ERA, on June 15 this year the company had announced a position for Regulatory Affairs and External Communications Executive Staff to be based in Lagos. The job announcement which described a potential candidate as one who can “establish BAT as a trusted partner of regulators and a leading authority on tobacco control issues across Nigeria,” was said to have outlined that the company was looking for someone “to provide advocacy that ensure(s) that engagement is relevant to tobacco control thinking, both current and future in order to maximise transaction with stakeholders and demonstrate deep knowledge of tobacco control in the real world.”

SOURCE