Showing posts with label surrogate advertising. Show all posts
Showing posts with label surrogate advertising. Show all posts
Will Indonesia mitigate COVID-19 by enforcing stronger tobacco control and ratifying global tobacco treaty?
Tobacco use: Sucking the youth from the youngsters
Dr Sophia Thomas, CNS Correspondent, India
I met Somu (name changed) during one of my dental outreach camps in the outskirts of Bengaluru city. He was a bright 14-year-old boy, who wanted to grow up to be a police officer. Upon examination, Somu was found to have stains on his teeth, suggestive of smoking tobacco.
Smoking Goes Electronic
Shobha Shukla - CNS
[हिंदी] ‘Smoke healthy, Lite-joy-- A better alternative'; ‘Health e-cigarettes—Smoke and Quit Whenever'; 'Vapours- benefits of e-cigarettes'; 'Green-Smart-Living - easiest and most affordable way to start living a smoke-free life'... These are just a few of the several online advertisements one comes across these days-- all glorifying electronic cigarettes.
[हिंदी] ‘Smoke healthy, Lite-joy-- A better alternative'; ‘Health e-cigarettes—Smoke and Quit Whenever'; 'Vapours- benefits of e-cigarettes'; 'Green-Smart-Living - easiest and most affordable way to start living a smoke-free life'... These are just a few of the several online advertisements one comes across these days-- all glorifying electronic cigarettes.
Tobacco Industries challenge government policies
(First published in Kapan Online, Nepal on 26 September 2013)
The tobacco producers across the world have often been challenging the government’s bid to control the productions and sales of the tobacco containing products. The tobacco industries in different countries of Asia, Africa, Middle-East and Europe have been charged with not abiding by the policies relating to public health.
It is time to completely end the game of tobacco
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), Health Related Information Dissemination Amongst Youth (HRIDAY) and World Health Organization (WHO) jointly organized the ‘International Conference on Public Health Priorities in the 21st Century: The Endgame for Tobacco’ recently in New Delhi.
Tobacco industry interference in controlling tobacco consumption
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| A nineteenth-century, tin box of Kyriazi Frères brand, Egyptian cigarettes |
The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing nearly six million people a year. More than five million of these deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while more than 600 000 are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke. Approximately one person dies every six seconds due to tobacco, accounting for one in 10 adult deaths.
Tobacco industry interests are in conflict with public health
The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is the world’s first global public health and corporate accountability treaty and to date 177 countries are Parties to it. By signing and ratifying this treaty, these countries are committed to adopt a range of measures to reduce tobacco use, including increasing taxes on tobacco products, banning tobacco advertising, creating smokefree public and work places, implementing health warnings, combating illicit trade and, above all, preventing industry interference in influencing health policies.
Youth is the cornerstone for tobacco control activities
The ‘International Conference on Public Health Priorities in the 21st Century: The Endgame for Tobacco’, jointly organized by The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) and Health Related Information Dissemination Amongst Youth (HRIDAY) was held recently in Delhi. The World Health Organization (WHO) was the technical co-sponsor of this event. The conference, which was attended by around 500 delegates from around 55 countries across the world, proved to be a whistle blower to the tobacco epidemic.
The global fight against tobacco must go on with renewed vigour
The fourth WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2013, which was released recently in Panama City, shows that one-third of the world’s population – 2.3 billion people (from 92 countries) – are now covered by at least one of the 6 life-saving policy measures to curb tobacco use. This represents an increase of nearly 1.3 billion people (and 48 countries) in the past five years. This year’s report focuses on complete bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship (TAPS), which is a highly effective way to reduce or eliminate exposure to cues for tobacco use.
To smoke or not to smoke...
'Tobacco kills nearly half its consumers'! “That can't be possible,” exclaimed Tesh (name changed) as his friend read out one of the new posters pasted at a bus stop. In most countries No Tobacco Day went by just like any other day, with probably just as many smokes up in flames. How much do we know about this much used substance Tobacco?
Types of Tobacco consumption
The different forms of consuming tobacco around the world include the cigarette, cigar, cigarillo and little cigar, dissolvable tobacco, electronic cigarette, beedi, roll your own, hookah, kreteks, the pipe, the french inhale and vaporiser, passive smoking and other forms of smokeless tobacco including paan, gutkha, mawa, chewable tobacco, snuff, snus, spit tobacco and dips among others.
Down With TAPS--For A Tobacco Free World
This year marks the 24th consecutive World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) in which the international community joins hands to bring attention to the tobacco industry’s underhanded tactics to thwart public health policy. The theme for World No Tobacco Day 2013 is: ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship with the view to curb tobacco industry’s aggressive tactics of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship (TAPS) to hook millions of new customers to this deadly product every year.
Tobacco-The silent ‘tsunami’
Tobacco kills nearly six million people each year, of which more than 600 000 are non smokers, usually called second-hand-smokers (SHS), according to World Health Organization Fact Sheet Number 339, May 2013. It also notes that approximately one person dies every six seconds due to tobacco and accounts for one in ten adult deaths. Tobacco is a silent assassin, which is usually ignored by most health response programs because it takes several years between when a person starts using tobacco and when the health effects are felt. Further, most second hand smokers have minimal appreciation of the health risks caused by smoking and in particular SHS.
Save Human Lives And Not The Tobacco Industry
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| Tobacco industry's allied groups lobbied against global tobacco treaty provisions |
The Cloud Of Tobacco Smoke Is Choking The World
Tobacco is the single most preventable cause of death in the world today. Yet it kills nearly 6 million people each year, which includes some 600,000 non-smokers who die due to exposure to second-hand smoke. In 2004, children accounted for 31% of these deaths. Almost half of the world’s children (through no fault of theirs) regularly breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke which is said to carry more than 4,000 chemicals, of which at least 250 are known to be harmful, and more than 50 are known to cause cancer. Tobacco is one of the greatest risk factors for Non Communicable Diseases which are responsible for 63% of all deaths globally. Also 50% of all deaths from lung disease are linked to tobacco.
Youth in Tobacco Control: The Real Investment
The key to fighting the tobacco menace is engaging youth at the forefront of the battle, with both youth focused tobacco control programs and policies and youth-led health advocacy. According to the World Health Organization, nearly 80 percent of the all adult smokers begin before 18 years of age. In India, 5500 youth initiate smoking every day. Of the 1000 teenagers smoking today, 500 will eventually die of tobacco related diseases - 250 in their middle age and 250 in their old age. The most susceptible time for initiating and experimenting with tobacco use in India is during adolescence and young adulthood, between 15-24 years of age. Estimates from the Global Tobacco Youth Survey (GYTS) show the growing concern of tobacco use by youth in both developed and developing countries. Nearly 15 % of Indian youth use tobacco in one form or the other – smoking or smokeless forms.
Beware The Might Of The Tobacco Industry
Tobacco Laws And Their Implementation – The Horror of Reality
[To see CNS photo gallery of this event, click here]
Are the tobacco control laws, as envisaged in the COTPA (Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act 2003) and the Ban on Smoking in Public Places being enforced and followed in the city of Lucknow? And are the citizens any wiser about the hazards of smoking and tobacco consumption? Read more
Weak implementation of tobacco control laws in Lucknow: Loreto College Students
[To see CNS photo gallery of this event, click here]Are the tobacco control laws, as envisaged in the COTPA (Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act 2003), like the Ban on Smoking in Public Places, being enforced and followed in the city of Lucknow? Are the Lucknow-citizens any wiser about the hazards of smoking and tobacco consumption? To find the ground reality, some students of Class XII of Loreto Convent College, Lucknow, recently did a random survey of the city, as part of their Environmental Education Project. They surveyed 200 persons (150 males and 50 females) of various age groups, and coming from different strata of society - from rickshaw pullers to executives. Read more
Bloomberg Award for Thailand's pictorial warnings on tobacco products
Bloomberg Award for Thailand's pictorial warnings on tobacco products
Jittima Jantanamalaka
The first Bloomberg Award for Global Tobacco Control (2009) was conferred to Dr Prakit Vathisathokit, Executive Secretary of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), Thailand.
Dr Prakit was awarded for his leadership to implement the pictorial health warning labels on tobacco products effectively in Thailand.
Talking about his campaign at ASH, he contributed extensively in raising awareness in society about tobacco-related health hazards. Working closely with the Ministry of Health in Thailand, Dr Prakit was part of the team which drafted a number of warnings for tobacco products. Thailand was the fourth country in the world after Canada, Brazil and Singapore, to print effective pictorial health warning labels on tobacco products. Thailand has nine photographs of people with tobacco-related life-threatening diseases which it uses on rotational basis for pictorial health warning labels on tobacco products.
Some other countries took these photographs from Thailand to use it as pictorial health warning labels in their own countries, including: Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore, Viet Nam, Philippines and Caribbean countries.
The level of awareness about tobacco-related health hazards has certainly gone up, tobacco users are more inclined to quit and children and young people felt de-motivated to use tobacco as a result of strong and effective pictorial health warning labels on tobacco products, said Dr Prakit.
This wasn't an easy task. Tobacco industry tried to threaten and thwart efforts of Dr Prakit, but unsuccessfully. "At that time there were not many countries that had strong and effective pictorial health warning labels on tobacco products. That is why tobacco industry was trying to threaten us. The tobacco industry said that the pictorial health warning labels were breaking the International Trademark law, and they will take legal action against us" said Dr Prakit. "But there were no legal action, just threats."
"Even if the tobacco industry had gone to the court, they would have lost the case because the World Trade Organization (WTO) marks tobacco and cigarette as a special good, which is dangerous to the consumer" said Dr Prakit.
Thailand has signed and ratified the global tobacco treaty - World Health Organization Framework of Convention Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) - which is a legally binding instrument. The FCTC strongly supports the pictorial health warning label provision, and Thailand is obligated to follow it. Also the WHO has recommended these warnings as they are cost-effective ways to control tobacco. The tobacco industry would have certainly lost in court, says Dr Prakit.
Presently there are 163 countries that have signed on the FCTC and all of them have to implement pictorial health warning labels on tobacco products within 3 years. "To prepare the photographs is not difficult but to handle the tobacco industry which tries to block and interfere with the health policies is most difficult" says Dr Prakit.
Tobacco is very addictive, as addictive as heroin, says Dr Prakit, which is why even many tobacco users are not easily able to quit even if they want to do so.
Due to strong and consistent tobacco control campaign in Thailand over the past 20 years, the number of smokers and sale of cigarettes are still the same - 10 million. If we didn't have a strong campaign and policy framework, estimated number of tobacco users in Thailand would have reached 14 million.
There is a lot more to be done in Thailand on tobacco control. We need to effectively enforce the smoke-free laws in Thailand, ban cross-border advertising and raise taxes on tobacco products so that tobacco cessation services can be scaled up, feels Dr Prakit.
[Audio podcast is available here]
Jittima Jantanamalaka - Citizen News Service (CNS)
Jittima Jantanamalaka
The first Bloomberg Award for Global Tobacco Control (2009) was conferred to Dr Prakit Vathisathokit, Executive Secretary of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), Thailand.
Dr Prakit was awarded for his leadership to implement the pictorial health warning labels on tobacco products effectively in Thailand.
Talking about his campaign at ASH, he contributed extensively in raising awareness in society about tobacco-related health hazards. Working closely with the Ministry of Health in Thailand, Dr Prakit was part of the team which drafted a number of warnings for tobacco products. Thailand was the fourth country in the world after Canada, Brazil and Singapore, to print effective pictorial health warning labels on tobacco products. Thailand has nine photographs of people with tobacco-related life-threatening diseases which it uses on rotational basis for pictorial health warning labels on tobacco products.
Some other countries took these photographs from Thailand to use it as pictorial health warning labels in their own countries, including: Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore, Viet Nam, Philippines and Caribbean countries.
The level of awareness about tobacco-related health hazards has certainly gone up, tobacco users are more inclined to quit and children and young people felt de-motivated to use tobacco as a result of strong and effective pictorial health warning labels on tobacco products, said Dr Prakit.
This wasn't an easy task. Tobacco industry tried to threaten and thwart efforts of Dr Prakit, but unsuccessfully. "At that time there were not many countries that had strong and effective pictorial health warning labels on tobacco products. That is why tobacco industry was trying to threaten us. The tobacco industry said that the pictorial health warning labels were breaking the International Trademark law, and they will take legal action against us" said Dr Prakit. "But there were no legal action, just threats."
"Even if the tobacco industry had gone to the court, they would have lost the case because the World Trade Organization (WTO) marks tobacco and cigarette as a special good, which is dangerous to the consumer" said Dr Prakit.
Thailand has signed and ratified the global tobacco treaty - World Health Organization Framework of Convention Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) - which is a legally binding instrument. The FCTC strongly supports the pictorial health warning label provision, and Thailand is obligated to follow it. Also the WHO has recommended these warnings as they are cost-effective ways to control tobacco. The tobacco industry would have certainly lost in court, says Dr Prakit.
Presently there are 163 countries that have signed on the FCTC and all of them have to implement pictorial health warning labels on tobacco products within 3 years. "To prepare the photographs is not difficult but to handle the tobacco industry which tries to block and interfere with the health policies is most difficult" says Dr Prakit.
Tobacco is very addictive, as addictive as heroin, says Dr Prakit, which is why even many tobacco users are not easily able to quit even if they want to do so.
Due to strong and consistent tobacco control campaign in Thailand over the past 20 years, the number of smokers and sale of cigarettes are still the same - 10 million. If we didn't have a strong campaign and policy framework, estimated number of tobacco users in Thailand would have reached 14 million.
There is a lot more to be done in Thailand on tobacco control. We need to effectively enforce the smoke-free laws in Thailand, ban cross-border advertising and raise taxes on tobacco products so that tobacco cessation services can be scaled up, feels Dr Prakit.
[Audio podcast is available here]
Jittima Jantanamalaka - Citizen News Service (CNS)
Thailand strengthening alliances in South East Asia for tobacco control
Thailand strengthening alliances in South East Asia for tobacco control
Jittima Jantanamalaka
Thailand had relatively strong tobacco control policies for years but for effective implementation, it was vital to seek cooperation and strengthen tobacco control initiatives in other countries in the South-East Asia (SEA).
“After working with Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) foundation in Thailand for 15 years, we believed that Thailand had quite strong policy on tobacco control and we should support and strengthen the cooperation between countries in South East Asia to achieve the goal together so we had set up South-East Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA). By this way SEATCA acts as supportive base for government and non- government tobacco control workers and other health advocates in the SEA region, through regional forum, SEATCA fellowship programmes and cooperate with researcher from several universities” said Bungon Ritthiphakdee, Director of South East Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA).
Bungon further explained about how Thailand is expanding its role in forging alliances in other ASEAN countries to fight against tobacco.
“The cooperation between ASEAN countries on tobacco control helps us to see the whole picture, we can also share resources, skills, best practice, and the compare programmes between different countries” said Bungon.
“The main campaigns that SEATCA is working on at the moment are pushing forward until all ASEAN countries have pictorial warning labels on the tobacco products and also increase taxes on tobacco products. Raising taxes on tobacco helps to reduce tobacco consumption but right now only Thailand and Singapore have high taxes. We also would like to campaign for more smoke-free cities in SEA region. Many countries like Philippines, Laos, Indonesia, Vietnam and many countries already have smoke-free cities, and in Thailand, we have Mukdaharn and there is some smoke-free movement building up in Sukhothai as well” further added Bungon.
The biggest challenge in SEATCA’s work is the interference of tobacco industry in implementation of tobacco control policies in different nations in the SEA region.
“Fortunately we are now having the guidelines of World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) Article 5.3 on protection of public health policies from tobacco industry interference, which asked the government of each party to have clear policy of not allowing the tobacco’s industry’s interference” said Bungon.
The guidelines of Article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC were adopted at the third conference of parties (COP 3) in Durban, South Africa (November 2008).
In response to a question on how effectively can the WHO FCTC Article 5.3 be enforced in SEA countries, Bungon responded: “there is no punishment even for the government which is not following FCTC but the biggest damage that will come to such countries will be the damage of their own nation, when their people, their youth and new generations will increasingly turn to tobacco use, and these nations will lose money in treating diseases attributed to tobacco use.”
At the recently concluded 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH), Thailand has been credited as one of the countries that have achieved significant success in tobacco control in Asia. The increase in tobacco taxes, the new smoke-free law that came into effect in 2008 banning smoking in public places including bars, restaurants and workplaces, and effective pictorial health warnings on tobacco products, are some of the measures that Thailand gets global recognition for. The first Bloomberg Award for Tobacco Control on effectively implementing pictorial health warning labeling on tobacco products was also conferred upon Dr Prakit Vathisathokit, Executive Secretary of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), Thailand.
The Asia and the Pacific accounts for 57% of the global cigarette consumption by region in 2007. According to World Health Organization’s MPOWER report 2008, in the 20th century, the tobacco epidemic killed 100 million people worldwide. During the 21st century, it could kill 1 billion.
SEATCA’s work is certainly critical in protecting Asians from diseases, disabilities and deaths attributed to tobacco use.
Jittima Jantanamalaka, Citizen News Service (CNS)
(The author is the Director of Jay Inspire Co. Ltd)
Jittima Jantanamalaka
Thailand had relatively strong tobacco control policies for years but for effective implementation, it was vital to seek cooperation and strengthen tobacco control initiatives in other countries in the South-East Asia (SEA).
Bungon further explained about how Thailand is expanding its role in forging alliances in other ASEAN countries to fight against tobacco.
“The cooperation between ASEAN countries on tobacco control helps us to see the whole picture, we can also share resources, skills, best practice, and the compare programmes between different countries” said Bungon.
“The main campaigns that SEATCA is working on at the moment are pushing forward until all ASEAN countries have pictorial warning labels on the tobacco products and also increase taxes on tobacco products. Raising taxes on tobacco helps to reduce tobacco consumption but right now only Thailand and Singapore have high taxes. We also would like to campaign for more smoke-free cities in SEA region. Many countries like Philippines, Laos, Indonesia, Vietnam and many countries already have smoke-free cities, and in Thailand, we have Mukdaharn and there is some smoke-free movement building up in Sukhothai as well” further added Bungon.
The biggest challenge in SEATCA’s work is the interference of tobacco industry in implementation of tobacco control policies in different nations in the SEA region.
“Fortunately we are now having the guidelines of World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) Article 5.3 on protection of public health policies from tobacco industry interference, which asked the government of each party to have clear policy of not allowing the tobacco’s industry’s interference” said Bungon.
The guidelines of Article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC were adopted at the third conference of parties (COP 3) in Durban, South Africa (November 2008).
In response to a question on how effectively can the WHO FCTC Article 5.3 be enforced in SEA countries, Bungon responded: “there is no punishment even for the government which is not following FCTC but the biggest damage that will come to such countries will be the damage of their own nation, when their people, their youth and new generations will increasingly turn to tobacco use, and these nations will lose money in treating diseases attributed to tobacco use.”
At the recently concluded 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH), Thailand has been credited as one of the countries that have achieved significant success in tobacco control in Asia. The increase in tobacco taxes, the new smoke-free law that came into effect in 2008 banning smoking in public places including bars, restaurants and workplaces, and effective pictorial health warnings on tobacco products, are some of the measures that Thailand gets global recognition for. The first Bloomberg Award for Tobacco Control on effectively implementing pictorial health warning labeling on tobacco products was also conferred upon Dr Prakit Vathisathokit, Executive Secretary of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), Thailand.
The Asia and the Pacific accounts for 57% of the global cigarette consumption by region in 2007. According to World Health Organization’s MPOWER report 2008, in the 20th century, the tobacco epidemic killed 100 million people worldwide. During the 21st century, it could kill 1 billion.
SEATCA’s work is certainly critical in protecting Asians from diseases, disabilities and deaths attributed to tobacco use.
Jittima Jantanamalaka, Citizen News Service (CNS)
(The author is the Director of Jay Inspire Co. Ltd)
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