The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Switzerland headquarters is a far distance from the tobacco fields of Kentucky, but the agency is casting a long shadow over those fields as it prepares to pass guidelines that could affect cigarette content and interrupt a centuries-old industry.
The organization is the “directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system … responsible for providing leadership on global health matters,” according to information found on its website. One of its many priorities has been to stop the spread of disease thought to be caused by the use of tobacco.
The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) is a treaty adopted by the World Health Assembly on May 21, 2003, and “entered into force” on February 27, 2005. It has been ratified by approximately 168 countries to date. Tarik Jasarevic, convention secretariat, said in an e-mail response that a “Conference of the Parties (COP) establishes a number of working groups to elaborate guidelines and recommendations for implementation of different Articles of the WHO FCTC.”
One of these working groups, Jasarevic said, works on Articles 9 and 10: “regulation of the contents of tobacco products” and “regulation of tobacco product disclosures.” . . .
That session is scheduled for Nov. 15-20 in Uruguay. It is the language contained in Articles 9 and 10, among others, that have producers and state officials concerned. One of those guidelines would ban ingredients other than tobacco in cigarette production. If that happens, it could mean trouble for burley tobacco producers.
During the curing process, burley becomes harsh tasting, so manufacturers add ingredients and sometimes blend different types of tobacco to make cigarettes made with burley more pleasant to smokers.
September 4th, 2010 | Category: International Cigarettes | Leave a comment
Article 14 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) requires countries to implement systems to provide tobacco dependence treatment. We report on global efforts to monitor the implementation of Article 14, and compare the surveys used in this effort.
. . .
Conclusions
Current surveys of tobacco dependence treatment provision are in general agreement with each other except for the two official government surveys that rely on governmental respondents. We believe that this points to the continued need for independent non-governmental monitoring of FCTC protocol implementation.
September 3rd, 2010 | Category: International Cigarettes | Leave a comment
Status:
Signatories to the WHO FCTC: 168
Parties to the WHO FCTC: 168
Participant Signature date Ratification, Acceptance (A), Approval (AA), Formal confirmation (c), Accession (a), Succession (d)
Afghanistan 29 June 2004 13 August 2010
Albania 29 June 2004 26 April 2006
Algeria 20 June 2003 30 June 2006
Angola 29 June 2004 20 September 2007 . . .
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 16 June 2003 16 December 2004
United Republic of Tanzania 27 January 2004 30 April 2007
United States of America 10 May 2004
Uruguay 19 June 2003 9 September 2004
September 3rd, 2010 | Category: International Cigarettes | Leave a comment
The chain-smoking Indonesian toddler who gained instant worldwide fame via a viral video of him puffing away has gone into rehab - and given up cigarettes.
But now, reports CBS News Correspondent Betty Nguyen, Aldi Suganda, 2, is heading home, and there’s concern he may give in to temptation and resume smoking once he gets there. . . .
In the morning, despite his mother’s optimism, Aldi wasn’t happy when he arrived at the hospital and was denied a cigarette.
What followed would be hard for any parent to bear, as Aldi wailed and smashed his head on the floor.
Over the next two days, he underwent a battery of tests, including a chest X-ray and ultrasound on his heart and lungs. Results showed a thickening on the left wall of his heart.
“The youngest smokers found,” says Aris Merdeka Sirait, CEO of the National Committee of Child Protection, “were 5 to 9 years-old. This year, we found that there are baby smokers, who start from a year old. He was also speaking through an interpreter.
September 2nd, 2010 | Category: Indonesian Clove Cigarettes | Leave a comment
In this two-part series for the BBC World Service, Sue Armstrong investigates the growing pressure on developing countries as tobacco companies battle for the hearts and lungs of new smokers.
At the same time, some poorer tobacco growing countries like Malawi are becoming ever more dependent on tobacco as a cash crop. How do they resolve the dilemma between health and wealth?
This is a question of personal interest to Sue Armstrong, since her own grandfather was chairman of Imperial Tobacco in India in the early 1900s. And her father - a doctor and long-time pipe smoker — used to grow his own tobacco in his garden. Finally convinced by the medical case against tobacco, he gave up smoking in the 1970s.
In much of the rich world, smoking is on the wane in the face of rising taxes on cigarettes, bans on promotion and lawsuits against tobacco companies. Less than 21% of British people and 24% of Americans now smoke - the lowest rates on record. But elsewhere, smoking is exploding.
August 31st, 2010 | Category: International Cigarettes | Leave a comment
Lawyers for British American Tobacco Co., seeking a chance to overturn an anti-racketeering ruling against it, on Friday notified the Supreme Court of a new lower court ruling that bars the overseas reach of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act of 1970 — one of the main U.S. laws used to challenge business misconduct. In a letter filed with the Court’s clerk, the attorneys attached the decision reached on Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff in New York City in the case of Cedeno, et al., v. Intech Group, et al. (District docket 09-9716).
The letter was filed to further support BATCo’s petition for rehearing in British American Tobacco Ltd. v. U.S. (Supreme Court docket 09-980). The plea is discussed in this blog post. The Justices have not yet acted on the petition.
August 31st, 2010 | Category: International Cigarettes | Leave a comment
Leading tobacco companies have rejected claims they have been bypassing advertising bans by using YouTube.
The companies categorically denied suggestions by researchers at New Zealand’s University of Otago that they are using social networking sites to get round ad restrictions.
In a study published in bmj.com, the Wellington-based researchers appear to question the number of “very professionally made” video clips on YouTube referring to tobacco brands.
Their conclusions come after looking through the first 20 pages of video clips containing any reference to five tobacco brands, analysing 163 relevant clips - of which more than 20 appeared to be professionally made.
August 31st, 2010 | Category: International Cigarettes | Leave a comment
Officers from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority have foiled yet another cigarette smuggling attempt - on board a ferry boat arriving from Indonesia.
2,000 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes were found stashed underneath the floorboard of the “MV Ocean Raider” during routine checks last Thursday at about 9am.
The total value of the contraband cigarettes was about S6,500, while the potential customs duty and GST payable for the cigarettes amounted to about S6,150 and S,850 respectively.
Two of the Indonesian crew admitted that they were involved in the smuggling attempt and had planned to deliver the cigarettes to a Singaporean at the Pandan River Bridge.
August 30th, 2010 | Category: Indonesian Clove Cigarettes | Leave a comment
Indonesia is now struggling to make its young generation avert smoking habit as smoking age is getting younger from year to year.
The government-sanctioned commission tasked to protect children’s rights (KPAI) through its statement released recently said that according to the most recent data issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2008, Indonesia was ranked number third in terms of smokers.
The KPAI Chairman Hadi Soepeno said that according to the data, Indonesia has 65 million smokers, or 28 percent of its population, with youngster smokers accounting for 13.5 percent.
Hadi said “24 percent of male and 2 percent of female children aged between 12 and 15 started to smoke. The number of children exposing to the danger of smoking was even greater as 70 percent of men in the families were active smokers.”
According to Hadi, the massive cigarette sales and advertisements in the country had made the prevalence of children smokers and far younger than 19 years old 10 years ago.
The future of 80 million Indonesian children is at stake
August 30th, 2010 | Category: Indonesian Clove Cigarettes | Leave a comment
An Australian academic and anti-tobacco campaigner has called out Bill Gates for his “plainly inconsistent” philanthropic partnership with another of the world’s richest men, who has links to a tobacco company.
Writing in the influential medical journal The Lancet, Professor Simon Chapman points to Mr Gates’ move in April to cancel a grant awarded to a Canada-based research group on discovery of its link to a tobacco company.
Prof Chapman said the Microsoft founder should similarly rethink his involvement in the “Latam health project”, a partnership announced in June in which Gates and Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim will each provide $US50 million ($A57 million) for child health initiatives.
“Gates’ decision just two months later to partner with Slim is plainly inconsistent,” said Prof Chapman, from the University of Sydney’s School of Public Health.
“He might well not have known about Slim’s tobacco connections when he joined with him in the Latam project. He must know now.
“His subsequent actions with the IDRC (Canada’s International Development Research Centre) were an outstanding example of principled philanthropy. Let’s hope he makes the same call again.”
Mr Slim’s extensive business interests included the majority ownership of Mexican tobacco company Cigatam, which since 2007 has been 80 per cent owned by Philip Morris International.
August 28th, 2010 | Category: International Cigarettes | Leave a comment
