The eighth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP8) to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) will be held in Geneva, Switzerland on October 1-6.
And, according to a note posted on an FCTC website, if, by July 2, 40 Parties to the treaty became Parties to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, COP8 would be followed by the first session of the Meeting of the Parties (MOP1).
The note said that COP8 would bring together the 181 Parties to the Convention as well as observers: states that are not Parties to the Convention, and international intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations.
‘The Convention Secretariat has dedicated a webpage to COP8 [http://www.who.int/fctc/cop/sessions/cop8/en/?ua=1] where the official documentations and all necessary information will be accessible for delegates and participants,’ the note said.
‘Also, joining the United Nations’ efforts to reduce paper waste, COP8 will have its own App, guaranteeing easy access to the information for delegates and participants.’
Meanwhile, the Convention Secretariat has released the Information Kit for Delegates to the Conference of the Parties [http://vivello.ch/fctc/?ua=1], which has been developed mainly to help new delegates to the COP to understand how the COP operates, and its practices and procedures.
Tag: World
COP8 meeting in October
EU acting on child labor
The EU Commission says it encourages the International Labour Organization (ILO) to promote decent work and eradicate child- and forced-labor in the tobacco sector, without resorting to financing from the tobacco industry.
The ILO has attracted criticism after a meeting of its governing body closed on Thursday without having reached a consensus on whether to continue its partnership with the tobacco sector in the fight against child labor.
But the Commission’s statement, delivered in writing on the day that the ILO meeting closed, was in answer to a question raised in December by the Maltese member of the European Parliament, Marlene Mizzi.
In a preamble to her question, Mizzi said that thousands of child workers spent summers working on tobacco farms, often to earn money needed for books, school supplies, and backpacks, or to help their parents pay the bills.
‘Many experience symptoms of acute nicotine poisoning, including nausea, vomiting, headaches, and dizziness,’ she said. ‘Public health studies have shown that tobacco farmworkers have nicotine levels in their bodies equal to smokers in the general population.
‘Moreover, it is dangerous for children to work 12 hours a day in the sun and high heat while absorbing nicotine and pesticides. Working in tobacco can be perilous for adults, but it is especially harmful to children whose bodies and brains are still developing.’
Mizzi asked: ‘Can the Commission clarify what measures it plans to take with regard to the tobacco industry, in order to protect the health of children by preventing hazardous child labor on tobacco farms?’.
In answer, the Commission said the EU was committed to fighting child labor through a ‘multidimensional and integrated approach’. ‘This is particularly important in the case of agriculture, one of the sectors with the highest incidence of the worst forms of child labor,’ it said.
‘The EU contributes to preventing child labor in the tobacco sector through actions promoting alternative livelihoods and decent jobs as well as improved access to education and training.
‘EU development policy interventions in agriculture are generally focused on supporting product diversification among smallholder farmers by promoting alternative sources of income to tobacco. Thus, our agro-business programs are underpinned by a thorough analysis of the relevant value chains and the role played by child labor.’
The Commission said that, as had been said in response to a previous question, its approach to fighting child- and forced-labor in agriculture, including that within tobacco supply chains, was based on an integrated multi-country approach to leverage companies into observing due diligence and rising consumers’ awareness.
‘The EU also encourages the International Labour Organization to promote decent work and eradicate child- and forced-labor in the tobacco sector without resorting to financing from the tobacco industry,’ it said.Plain packaging attacked
The removal of brands from packaging is a ‘gross violation’ of intellectual property rights and has failed to achieve its intended goals, the Property Rights Alliance argues in a letter to the World Health Organization.
According to a story by Claire Stam for EURACTIV.com; in an open letter to WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Gehbreyesus, an international alliance of 62 think tanks, advocacy groups and civil-society organisations said it was time to end ‘ineffective’ standardized packaging for any kind of product.
The alliance said they had sent the letter in response to a growing number of standardized-packaging tobacco-control measures in a number of countries.
‘Intellectual property rights are human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Article 17, the right to ownership, Article 19, the right to freedom of expression, and article 27, the right to protection of material interests,’ the letter reportedly said.
‘In this regard, even if plain packaging is effective, it should still be repealed, as rights are inalienable and should not be discarded for political purposes.’
Meanwhile, Stam said that, in the eyes of the WHO and public health NGOs, standardized packaging was a key tool to reduce the appeal of smoking, especially among young people.
The full story is at: https://www.euractiv.com/section/health-consumers/news/who-urged-to-end-ineffective-tobacco-plain-packaging/.Child support reiterated
Japan Tobacco International has reiterated its commitment to pursue what it describes as its flagship child labor elimination program ARISE.
This follows the deferment by the International Labor Organization (ILO) of a decision on a public-private partnership with the tobacco sector – reportedly the third such deferment in two years.
Since 1919, the ILO, the only tripartite UN agency bringing together governments, employers and workers has been charged with setting labour standards, develop policies and devising programs promoting decent work for all women and men within its 187 member-states.
In a note posted on its website, JTI said a meeting of the governing body of the ILO on Thursday had closed without reaching a consensus on whether to continue its partnership with the tobacco sector in the fight against child labor.
“Improving labor practices in our grower communities is a key priority for our company”, Elaine McKay, JTI’s social programs director, was quoted as saying.
“We regret that the hugely positive impact of our current partnership – taking over 30,000 children out of the fields since 2011 – is being jeopardized by the WHO’s FCTC [World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control] secretariat and other anti-tobacco activists. Over the past two years, they have constantly distorted and influenced the debate with unfounded allegations, prioritizing politics over concrete solutions to today’s child labor issues. This has been counterproductive and ignoring the real victims of this debate: children and workers in the tobacco sector, but also tobacco growing communities as a whole.”
“We remain fully committed to pursuing our fight against child labor with our dedicated programs, including ARISE – Achieving Reduction of child labor In Support of Education. We trust that the ILO will find a constructive solution to continue promoting decent work in the tobacco sector,” she said.Declarations made
The World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTH) has called upon governments to develop plans by 2021 for phasing out the sale of tobacco products.
In a statement, the WCTH, which held its 17th conference in Cape Town, South Africa, on March 7-9, also made 10 declarations.
In a preamble to the declarations, the WCTH said the tobacco epidemic represented one of the biggest public health threats the world had ever faced.
‘Tobacco use kills more than seven million people each year, and the vast majority of these deaths take place in low- and middle-income countries.
‘The global economic cost of smoking amounts to nearly two trillion dollars and two percent of the worlds GDP in 2016.
‘Tobacco use also undermines sustainable development, imposing a huge burden on the global economy, exacerbating poverty, contributing to food insecurity, and harming the environment.
‘There is an irreconcilable conflict between the manufacture and marketing of tobacco products and the right to health.
‘The tobacco industry is a driver of poverty and linked to child labor, violation of workers’ rights, food insecurity and exploitation of farmers. African governments need to take concrete and urgent action to implement alternative livelihoods that are the rich sources of income free from tobacco.
‘Ending the scourge of tobacco and achieving the SDGs [sustainable development goals] will require urgent action.
‘Therefore the 17th World Conference on Tobacco or Health affirms the following:- We call on governments to unite with civil society to stop tobacco industry interference and accelerate implementation of the WHO FCTC [World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control] using a whole-of-government approach.
- We urge governments, scientists, research entities, foundations, and civil-society organizations to reject or cease engagement with the Philip Morris International-funded Foundation for a Smokefree World and other initiatives of the tobacco industry
- We adopt the Cape Town Declaration on Human Rights and a Tobacco-free World (https://unfairtobacco.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Cape-Town-Declaration_Human-Rights_Tobacco-free-World-1.pdf).
- We call on African governments to operationalize the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on financing for development that recommends increasing tobacco taxes as an untapped, sustainable domestic resource mobilization strategy, for accelerating the implementation of the WHO FCTC in Africa.
- We call on Parties to actively engage in the development of the WHO FCTC Medium Term Strategic Framework and Plan and to endorse them at the forthcoming eighth session of the Conference of the Parties of the WHO FCTC.
- We support the concept of a tobacco-free generation and commit to empowering youth involvement and advocacy as a means to achieving a tobacco-free world (http://wctoh.org/news/youth-pre-conference-delegates-unite-to-build-a-tobacco-free-generation/).
- We call on Finance Ministers to actively support the WCTOH 2018 Declarations by prioritizing sustainable funding for tobacco control and ceasing public and private investment in the tobacco industry.
- We call on governments to extend as a priority, fiscal policies to continually decrease the affordability and accessibility of tobacco products
- We call on the Parties to the WHO FCTC to integrate gender-based data-collection and reporting into Party reports to the Conference of the Parties [COP] on their implementation of the WHO FCTC by COP9.
- We call upon the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to align with the decision of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and end its collaboration with the tobacco industry immediately.’
Activists threatened
Several tobacco-control advocates told last week’s 17th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Cape Town, South Africa, of the violence or threats they faced as they fought the expansion of smoking in their countries, according to a story by Donald G. McNeil Jr. for the New York Times.
Eight years ago, more than a dozen men with AK-47s shot their way into Akinbode Oluwafemi’s home in Lagos, Nigeria. They killed his house guard and his brother-in-law, and briefly held a muzzle to the head of one of his year-old twins.
“I do not know why I was not killed that day,” said Oluwafemi, who as deputy director of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria has been one of his country’s leading antismoking activists.
None of the victims, who spoke at the conference in telephone conversations, could prove that the men assaulting or threatening them worked for the tobacco industry.
But the pattern was said to be consistent.
They were first quietly warned that they were upsetting cigarette companies, tobacco farmers or government officials connected to the industry.
And if the activists persisted, threats or violence escalated suddenly and unpredictably.
McNeil’s story is at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/12/health/antismoking-activists-threats.html?emc=edit_tnt_20180312&nlid=60534081&tntemail0=yFocus on heart disease
‘Tobacco and heart disease’ is scheduled to be the focus of World No Tobacco Day 2018, according to a note posted on the World Health Organization’s website.
WHO says the campaign, which is held every year on May 31, will increase awareness of the link between tobacco and heart and other cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), including stroke, which combined are the world’s leading causes of death.
And it will aim to increase awareness of feasible actions and measures that can be taken to reduce the risks posed by tobacco to heart-health.
‘Tobacco use is an important risk factor for the development of coronary heart disease, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease,’ WHO said.
‘Despite the known harms of tobacco to heart health, and the availability of solutions to reduce related death and disease, knowledge among large sections of the public that tobacco is one of the leading causes of CVD is low.’
WHO said CVDs killed more people than any other cause of death worldwide, and that tobacco use and second-hand smoke exposure contributed to about 12 percent of all heart disease deaths. ‘Tobacco use is the second leading cause of CVD, after high blood pressure,’ it said.
‘The global tobacco epidemic kills more than seven million people each year, of which close to 900 000 are non-smokers dying from breathing second-hand smoke.
‘Nearly 80 percent of the more than one billion smokers worldwide live in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of tobacco-related illness and death is heaviest.’
Number of smokers grows globally
Photo by Dominic’s pics The global prevalence of smoking fell from 29.4 percent to 15.3 percent between 1990 and 2015, but, because of population growth, the number of smokers increased from 870.4 million to 933.1 million during the same period, according to a EurekAlert! story relayed by the TMA and citing the latest estimates from the Global Burden of Disease Study published in The Lancet.
The study, which was said to have taken in the smoking habits of people in 195 countries and territories, was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies.
It reported that 25.0 percent of men and 5.4 percent of women said they smoked daily.
And in another finding it reported that smoking-related mortality rates had risen by 4.7 percent globally during the past decade.
According to the report, the 10 countries with the largest number of smokers in 2015 were China, India, Indonesia, the US, Russia, Bangladesh, Japan, Brazil, Germany and the Philippines, which together account for 63.6 percent of the world’s smokers.
Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines saw no significant reductions in smoking prevalence among men between 1990 and 2015, when their smoking rates were said to be 46.7 percent, 38.0 percent and 34.5 percent respectively.
In Russia, where comprehensive tobacco control policies were implemented only in 2014, the smoking prevalence among women increased from 7.9 percent in 1990 to 12.3 percent in 2015.
The senior author of the study, Dr. Emmanuela Gakidou of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, called for the intensification of tobacco control to reduce further the smoking prevalence and its health burden.
