PHA-Exchange> Promotional tobacco campaign violates the fundamental rights

Fri Jun 6 00:43:28 PDT 2003

http://www.dailystarnews.com/law/200305/03/opinion.htm
The Daily Star, Bangladesh,
Law opinion page
18 May 2003

 Promotional tobacco campaign violates the fundamental rights
By Dr Carmelita Canila
Health Programme Officer
Consumers International Office for Asia Pacific

Dr Selina Ahsan's vision is for the next generation to be free from tobacco.
The Bangladesh Joint Secretary of the Health and Family Welfare Ministry
made a strong impression at the Sixth Intergovernmental Negotiating Body
(INB6) in Geneva. Her vision was shared by participants from the 170
countries present. It is a vision that calls for a systematic plan and
co-ordinated effort.

With a fast growing population of already 130 million, Bangladesh offers a
huge market for the tobacco industry. A "Work for a Better Bangladesh" and
"PATH Canada" survey last year found that 63 percent of Bangladeshis aged
5-13 years are exposed to televised cigarette advertisements. Five-year-old
children recall at least two cigarette brands while nine and 11-year-olds
mention more than four different brands. This is alarming for one of the
world's least developed countries where estimates show that 10.5 million
people could be saved from malnutrition if the poor did not smoke.

Scientific evidence shows that smokers who start young often become heavy
smokers and find it hard to stop. Children are rapidly addicted to tobacco
products - over days rather than months and at even lower amounts of
tobacco. It takes only two sticks of cigarette per week for children to get
hooked and develop an addiction.

The proposed Anti-Tobacco Act that will ban tobacco advertising is therefore
a welcome development. The Act will have to incorporate the strategies
outlined in the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Any Act is
but a statement of intent. It is implementation that matters. Effective
implementation calls for a close partnership between government and civil
society. Civil society can make a variety of contributions from lending
expertise in treaty negotiations, to being watchdogs and tobacco control
implementers.

The FCTC
 It took four years to negotiate the FCTC that is expected to be officially
adopted by the World Health Assembly in May and open for signing effective
June 16, 2003. It will become legally binding after 40 countries have
ratified it.
The FCTC will encourage individual countries, especially those with limited
capacities, to address transnational issues concerning tobacco and provide
governments strategies to control tobacco consumption. The FCTC is an
important tool for Asia where 40,000-50,000 teens start smoking daily. The
tobacco control laws of Asian countries - with the exception of Singapore,
Australia, Hong Kong and Thailand - are nascent and among the weakest
worldwide. Low taxes on cigarettes, duty-free sales, incomprehensible
warning signs, poor regulations on advertising and almost no control on
sponsorship are the norm.

Highlights of the treaty
The FCTC requires all countries to ban all tobacco advertising, promotion
and sponsorship within five years after the treaty has been entered into
force.

 Within three years, the parties have to ensure that each cigarette pack
carries health warnings that are large, clear and visible covering at least
30 percent, or ideally 50 percent or more of the principal display areas.

Health warnings may be in pictures or pictograms. However, there is no
obligatory language to ban
misleading labels such as mild, light and low-tar.

Non-governmental organisations have actively campaigned for the ban of
smoking in work areas. The treaty, though recognising that second-hand smoke
causes death, disease and disability, merely restricts rather than prohibits
smoking in workplaces. Bangladesh can however, choose to prohibit.

The treaty prohibits sales to minors. It also requires elimination of all
forms of illicit trade in tobacco products, including smuggling, illicit
manufacturing and counterfeiting", and calls on parties to track tobacco
products to control the distribution system.

The preamble gives full respect to a country's right to protect public
health, thus providing an impetus for countries to implement stringent
measures to regulate, even beyond what the treaty requires.

 The socio-economic cost of tobacco
Governments often do not act fearing losses to the country's gross income in
terms of trade benefits, employment and taxation. But this is because proper
accounting of the socio-economic cost is not done.
The British Medical Journal in its February 2003 issue states that smoking
costs the Australian community billions of dollars three times more than any
other illicit drugs. The amount included both tangible and intangible costs
to individuals, companies, and the government as well as the effect of
passive smoking on children and the unborn. The study concluded that,
"tobacco is still the greatest killer by far and imposes the greatest
costs."

The impact of an increasing death rate attributable to tobacco is felt more
so in developing countries. South Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal,
India and Myanmar shoulder approximately 20 percent of the global burden of
tobacco related illnesses. These countries are already grappling with many
social problems and inadequate resources to meet their people's health
needs. Tobacco use imposes a very heavy burden.

Tobacco use is high especially among the poor and the uneducated. A recent
analysis on the impact of tobacco on the poor in Bangladesh by "Work for a
Better Bangladesh" and "PATH Canada", showed that a pack of cigarettes daily
could account for 76 percent of the household income of Bangladesh's
poorest six percent. A survey of 300 Bangladeshi tobacco farmers reveals
that tobacco cultivation is lucrative. It requires intensive labour, and
children  are required to quit school to help in tobacco production. Farmers
rely on  household labour to economise on cost of tobacco cultivation.

Right to life
However, all may not be lost. Bangladeshis scored a victory when tobacco
control advocates won a writ petition filed against the tobacco industry. In
November 2002, the Law and Society Trust of Bangladesh (LSTB) filed a case
against Imperial Tobacco Ltd for its promotional and advertising activities
of Thames cigarettes, offering prizes including a trip to London. The LSTB
argued that since tobacco is a harmful product, Imperial Tobacco's
promotional campaigns violated the Bangladeshi's fundamental rights.

The judges stayed all promotional advertisement activities of Imperial
Tobacco for a period of two months. At the end of the two months, the stay
order was extended for a further two weeks, despite Imperial Tobacco's
claims that the stay order was unconstitutional.

  ________________________
  Carmelita C.Canila, M.D

Programme Officer
Health & Pharmaceutical

Consumers International
Asia Pacific Office
 Lot 5-1 Wisma WIM,
 7 Jalan Abang Haji Openg,TTDI,
 60000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
 Tel: (603) 77261599
 Fax: (603) 77268599
 E-mail:   carmelita at ciroap.org
 Websites: www.consumersinternational.org/roap , www.ciroap.org/apcl ,
 www.ciroap.org/food

Consumers International is a federation of consumer organisations
dedicated to the protection and promotion of consumers' rights worldwide
through
empowering national consumer groups and campaigning at the international
level. It currently represents over 250 organisations in 115 countries.
For more information, see: www.consumersinternational.org