PHA-Exchange> Leading U.S. Public Health Groups Tell U.S. Delegation to Tobacco Treaty

[Syed Mahbubul Alam Tahin]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Nicole Dueffert 
February 25, 2003 011 41 79 470 16 78 (Geneva mobile) 
Judith Wilkenfeld 
202-413-2488 (U.S. mobile)
Leading U.S. Public Health Groups Tell U.S. Delegation to Tobacco Treaty 
Negotiations: Go Home

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (February 25, 2003) ­ The American Cancer Society, 
American Heart Association, American Lung Association and Campaign for 
Tobacco-Free Kids today called on the United States government to withdraw 
from the negotiations on the proposed international tobacco treaty, the 
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), rather than continue to 
undermine the efforts of the rest of the world to adopt a strong treaty. 
The final round of treaty negotiations is currently taking place in Geneva 
under the auspices of the World Heath Organization (WHO), with a goal of 
finishing by February 28. The U.S. delegation has stepped up efforts to 
water down nearly every provision of the treaty and sought to block other 
nations’ attempts to strengthen the treaty.
“The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is a historic opportunity for 
the world's nations to address a global tobacco epidemic that is projected 
to kill 500 million people alive today,” said Matthew L. Myers, president, 
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “Since the United States has not supported 
a strong, effective treaty, its negotiators should pack their bags and go 
home. Instead of supporting provisions in the treaty that would protect 
public health and save lives, the U.S. delegation has chosen to stand in the 
way. They have played the role of obstructionist, suggesting weakening 
amendments and ineffective proposals and strong-arming other delegations to 
support them. Rather than protecting public health, they have continuously 
chosen to protect the tobacco industry.”

“The U.S. government has demeaned the value of one of the greatest documents 
in world history, the United States Constitution, by using it to defend its 
opposition to a ban on tobacco advertising,” said Dr. Alfred Munzer, past 
president and spokesman for the American Lung Association at the 
negotiations. “The U.S. government has squandered an opportunity to lead 
the efforts to develop a strong Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. It 
has instead chosen to be the handmaiden of the tobacco industry and to use 
its power to sabotage and to weaken the treaty. The most honorable thing 
the U.S. can do now to ensure a strong Framework Convention is to be 
forthright and honest in its opposition to an effective convention and to 
tell its delegation to go home.”

“At this crucial juncture, the United States government is working 
methodically to weaken virtually every aspect of this treaty,” said Dr. John 
Seffrin, Chief Executive Officer, American Cancer Society. “This is 
unconscionable. We call on the U.S. government to observe the first rule of 
the Hippocratic Oath: Do No Harm. The time has come for the U.S. to stand 
aside and allow the rest of the world to complete a treaty strong enough to 
change the course of the tobacco epidemic.”

"The United States has been a world leader in tobacco prevention efforts 
within its own borders, especially for kids. It is disgraceful that we are 
now leading efforts to prevent other countries from doing the same," said M. 
Cass Wheeler, CEO of the American Heart Association. 
As home to Philip Morris, the world’s largest tobacco company, the U.S. has 
a special obligation to provide leadership in negotiating a strong treaty 
that can reduce the alarming rates of death and disease caused by tobacco 
use. Public health groups had hoped that, with the deadline for completing 
the treaty approaching, the U.S. would change course and take a leadership 
role in protecting public health. Unfortunately, the U.S. has remained a 
primary obstacle to a strong treaty. The time has come for the U.S. to get 
out of the way and let other nations get on with the important work of 
negotiating a treaty that can stop the tobacco industry’s assault on the 
developing world.
During the negotiations, the U.S. delegation has introduced proposals that 
would not only weaken the treaty but retard the process of compromise among 
delegates who are seeking to craft a strong public health treaty. They 
include:
· Advertising: The U.S. delegation has continued to fight inclusion of a 
treaty provision calling for a ban on tobacco advertising to the extent 
permitted by each nation’s constitution. There is strong scientific 
evidence that the most effective way to eliminate the influence of tobacco 
marketing on young people is through a comprehensive advertising ban.
· Health vs. Trade: The majority of countries have supported a provision to 
protect tobacco control measures from trade challenges, while the United 
States has led the fight against such a provision. The treaty should 
recognize that the lethal nature of tobacco products requires that they be 
treated differently from the beneficial products to which international 
trade rules normally apply. This issue is critical since the tobacco 
industry has a long history of using trade law as a tool to thwart tobacco 
control policies, including several times with the support of the U.S. 
government in the 1980s and 1990s. Recently, Philip Morris has threatened 
to challenge Canada’s proposed ban on misleading terms such as “light” and 
“mild” as a violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement and an 
international agreement on patents and trademarks.
· Secondhand smoke: The U.S. delegation introduced a proposal that is a 
smokescreen, obligating parties to neither adopt strong measures nor take 
any action on secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke kills. Given that there 
is no safe level of exposure, protection must be obligatory and not 
voluntary.
The World Health Organization estimates that there are 1.1 billion smokers 
in the world today, a number expected to rise to 1.64 billion by the year 
2025. About four million people die each year from tobacco use. If current 
trends continue, this figure will reach about 10 million per year by the 
early 2030s, with 70 percent of those deaths occurring in developing 
countries.





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