This is the COP-4 closing press release of the Framework Convention Alliance (fctc.org)
PUNTA DEL ESTE, Uruguay, Nov. 20, 2010 – The fourth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the global tobacco treaty ended Saturday with major achievements for public health in the face of unprecedented efforts by the tobacco industry to block progress in reducing the millions of lives lost annually to tobacco-related diseases.
The 172 Parties to the treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), rebuffed a months-long, global industry campaign and approved guidelines on tobacco flavourings and additives (Articles 9 & 10). This occurred despite the industry’s efforts to paint the guidelines as a ban on certain varieties of tobacco that would put the livelihoods of millions of farmers in jeopardy, particularly in the developing world. Instead, COP delegates endorsed the guidelines’ aim of limiting flavourings that are used by tobacco companies to attract young smokers.
The COP also voted to create a working group that will draft guidelines on tobacco taxation. Tobacco tax increases are the single most effective short-term measure to reduce tobacco consumption, but are often blocked by lack of awareness in finance ministries of the added revenue (and public health gains) to be made.
“Despite a slow start by this COP, the decisions taken by the sovereign states that negotiated the treaty this week demonstrate a willingness to protect the health of the citizens of the world rather than the interests of the tobacco industry,” said Laurent Huber, Director of the Framework Convention Alliance (FCA), an alliance of more than 350 civil society organisations worldwide.
During the COP, industry-linked farmers’ groups erected a tent across from the conference centre, from where they continued their misinformation campaign about the guidelines on tobacco flavours. Industry representatives also infiltrated a number of Parties’ delegations.
“Credit must be given to host Uruguay, a small country that has stood up to a powerful adversary in the tobacco industry, for setting the tone of this COP. But we know the industry will not relent and will lobby very hard, at COP-5 or COP-6, against the adoption of strong and effective guidelines on tobacco taxation,” Huber added.
Friday’s decisions followed the adoption by the COP on Thursday of the Punta del Este Declaration, a vote of support for Uruguay, which has been forced to defend its ground-breaking tobacco control measures – including graphic warnings that cover 80 percent of tobacco packages – against a complaint by tobacco industry giant Philip Morris International at the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
The Declaration affirmed the right of sovereign states to adopt public health measures that affect the use of tobacco industry trademarks. It reaffirmed that tobacco packaging and labelling measures set out in the FCTC and its guidelines do not violate international trade and investment agreements.
Other important developments during the COP included a decision to continue negotiations on an illicit trade protocol and to initiate work on supporting Parties to deal with liability (Article. 19), as well as improvements to the FCTC reporting system. Guidelines on education, communication, training and public awareness (Art. 12) and cessation measures (Art. 14) were also approved.
A final decision on the COP budget was still pending Saturday morning; however, there were encouraging signs, said Huber, including a creative solution to make up a looming US$600,000 deficit.
“FCA urges Parties to adopt the same creative approach to funding the COP as they exhibited in earlier decisions this week. The lives of millions of people worldwide are at stake,” he added.
For further information contact FCA Communications Manager Marty Logan, in Punta del Este: tel from abroad: +598 99 705263, within Uruguay - 099 705263, or loganm@fctc.org
Monday, November 22, 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Health And Fitness For All Ages - Trafford
Health And Fitness For All Ages - TraffordBy Elpidio Dorotheo
- Published: January, 2008
- Format: Perfect Bound Softcover (B/W)
- ISBN: 9781412092487
Good health and a productive life are the most precious gifts that a person can ever expect to be blessed with by a loving Creator. Since the creation of man, there have been countless times when we could have chosen to live in good health and survive the onslaughts of time without much of the wear and tear that comes with aging. But many times we take a careless detour that often proves detrimental to our lives.
Make no mistake this is not an ordinary "learn and live well book." Each page depicts the author's meticulous attention to all ages by offering concrete advice and practical steps on how to start and maintain health and fitness through progressive exercise, proper supplementation and the adoption of an open positive outlook. This will afford one to look at life with adequate courage and determination to live well. These are the bare mechanics of survival in human existence.
So pervasive these days are the fear of growing old, catching an incurable disease or losing one's health through careless living. The thought of being helplessly overwhelmed by such situations can be intimidating but reading this book will be a tremendous resource for everyone who desires to survive and excel.
The beauty of this book is that it appeals to every age and promises to help those who would help themselves without any personal reservations in order to achieve positive power in their lives.
The chapters that deal with the ABC's of Health and Fitness serve the needs of everyone Through the Ages. Included also are the Nuts and Bolts of Exercise which are necessary to attain the level of fitness fitted to one's age. Additional steps of lighter exercise or Aerobics round up the Sections to Fitness and Healthful Living.
About the author:
Born in the Philippines, Elpidio S. Dorotheo is a man driven by an unselfish mission. He envisions the earth populated by healthy and fit people, of all ages, leading productive lives free from the stresses and bombardment of micro and macro chaotic waves that warp lives and the best of intentions. However, resigned to reality and its shortcomings, he remains determined to effect an improvement somehow in the lives of others.
In his youth, he had the blessings and support of a doting father who believed unconditionally in the positive benefits of physical culture. Encouraged, he delved deeply into the nature of bodybuilding and started sweating it out, committedly to build his own personal health and strength.
During World War II, he persevered in his bodybuilding regimen. At 16-years of age, he joined the resistance movement and was assigned to the signal platoon which saw him lugging communication equipment across mountains and forests. It was also this time that he had the good fortune of getting acquainted with the then future "Mr. America," Steve Reeves, who encouraged him to persevere in his weight training, so both of them could one day win the "Mr. America" and "Mr. Philippines" physique titles, respectively. Sure enough, Steve earned his coveted title of "Mr. America" in 1947. Five years later, the author garnered wide media coverage when he won the "Mr. Philippines" title.
During these celebrity stages, he decided to share his physical blessings with everyone who wanted to survive in this world actually adapting health priorities for themselves and encouraging others to join in the physical culture way of life.
Armed with adequate credits of Physical Education in college and a completed Physical Culture Course from England, he opened a health club and offered physical training home services. Among his clients were the children of Philippine President Marcos, a World Bowling Cup champion, senators, bank presidents, company executives, champion basketball and golf teams. To open up the minds of readers to the advantages of living, eating and exercising along healthy lines, he wrote numerous articles and a column on health and fitness.
In the Philippines, he served as one of two Undersecretaries of Youth and Sports, was also a Second Vice-President of the Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation (PAAF) as well as President of the Philippine Weightlifting Association and Running Clubs Association of the Philippines (RUNCAP) and a Bureau Member of the International Weightlifting and Physical Culture Federation.
In 1970 in Columbus, Ohio, he was one of seven international judges who voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger, of Austria as "Mr. World." In 1974, he was awarded the International Weightlifting Federation's highest award, the "Gold Medal of Service."
In defense of the PICTURE-BASED HEALTH WARNING LAW
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Tobacco control advocate Ulysses Dorotheo, MD
In defense of the PICTURE-BASED HEALTH WARNING LAW
By Perry Gil S. Mallari Reporter
The Philippines is in violation of an international treaty much of the world has been wise enough to heed. And with each day that we fail to comply more Filipinos spiral into addiction, die of debilitating diseases and cripple the economy. In September 5, 2005, the Philippines became a signatory to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the world’s first global health treaty signed by over a hundred nations.
As a party to this agreement, the Philippines is bound to implement its full measure come September 2008 including the passing of the Picture-Based Health Warning Law. The said bill when enacted would oblige tobacco companies to put graphic health warnings on cigarette packs.
The passing of the Picture-Based Health Warning Law is now stalled in the Lower House of Congress. Ulysses Dorotheo, MD, senior policy adviser of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance, Philippines (FCAP), expresses his concern on the implications of the treaty violation both on public health and the country’s international reputation.
Strong opposition
Dorotheo blames the strong opposition by a number of lawmakers in the Lower House for the delay of the passage of the Picture-Based Health Warning Law. He narrates that trouble began after three public hearings when the Health Committee decided to put up a technical working group (TWG) to appease the two camps of lawmakers debating on the bill. “At that time, the goal of the TWG was to arrive at a consensus and determine revisions if there are any but what happened was there was no discussion of the law from the very beginning, the northern block of lawmakers was just there to kill the bill,” he bemoans.
Dorotheo named two congressmen—Rep. Eric Singson of Ilocos Sur and Rep. Vincent Crisologo of the First District of Quezon City—as the lawmakers who are foremost in opposing the Picture-Based Health Warning Law. “Their contention was that our six million tobacco farmers and their families in the Ilocos region would go hungry if the graphic health warning law was passed,” he points out.
Counterargument
Dorotheo admits that the number was quite sizeable so FCAP decided to determine the validity of the argument. “We went to the Ilocos region and talked to the farmers there and we found out that that was not the case. They are already starving and many are neck-deep in debts,” he relates. Dorotheo adds that a lot of farmers they interviewed were willing to shift from tobacco farming to cultivating other crops if only they have the technical know-how and resources. The reason behind this, the physician explains, is that cultivating tobacco is a very labor-intensive chore, “It usually involves the whole family from dusk till dawn robbing them of a quality life.”
Dorotheo reveals that a number of party-list organizations have already exerted efforts to help the impoverished tobacco farmers to make the shift from tobacco farming to cultivating alternative crops but their funds were not released until now. “I don’t know what these lawmakers opposing the graphic health warning bill are doing to address this problem,” he intones. Based on the FCAP’s investigation, Dorotheo is adamant that there is no correlation at all between the passage of the Picture-Based Health Warning Law and the economic condition of Filipino tobacco farmers.
Dorotheo says that 23 countries and territories in the Asian region including Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong have already required the graphic health warning law. “Many of these states have lots of tobacco farmers but none of them suffered economically because their countries implemented the picture-based health warning bill,” he stresses.
Regardless of the impact of the graphic health warning law implementation on local tobacco farmers, two facts are undeniable:
1. The tobacco industry does not benefit the common farmer beyond meager sustenance. Despite centuries of trade and the great wealth accrued by cigarette companies, tobacco farmers remain poor.
According to the Solidarity of Peasants Against Exploitation (Stop-Ex) in August of this year, former tobacco farmers in La Union have successfully farmed corn for the last five years and could harvest and earn more with technical assistance from the government. With tobacco farming, traders charge high interest rates and control the buying price as a loan condition.
2. The cost to the national economy in lost man-hours, health expenses and mortality far outweigh any benefit the tobacco industry may produce.
According to the World Health Organization’s Smoking Statistics of 2002, “About 200,000 Filipino men will develop smoking-related diseases in their productive years of age. To provide health care for these sick men and to cover the loss in productivity, it was estimated that it would cost Filipino taxpayers some P43 billion… Every year, there are about 20,000 smoking-related deaths in the country… Tobacco use will drain nearly 20 percent of the household income of smokers’ families.”
Plan of actions
Dorotheo announces that FCAP is currently gathering support from other public sectors like environmental and urban poor groups to rescue the Picture-Based Health Warning Law. “This is for the good of everybody because it’s all about informing the public and the consumers of the lethal dangers of smoking,” he says, continuing, “The citizens must also do their part by writing their lawmakers, their priests and their business leaders on their concern regarding the issue.”
While the Picture-Based Health Warning Law was given a hard time in the Lower House, Dorotheo believes that it would sail smoothly in the Senate. “The two authors of the bill are Sen. Aquilino Pimentel and Sen. Pia Cayetano, the doctor says, adding, “The other senators say they want some clarifications but express no opposition to the law unlike some lawmakers in the Lower House.”
The intrepid physician emphasizes that there is really no rationalization for opposing the graphic health warning bill because it’s pro-health, pro-poor and pro-Filipino. “The lawmakers who are opposing this law are therefore anti-health, anti-poor and anti-Filipino,” he explains.
Dorotheo intones that there is one intervention that can pull out the Picture-Based Health Warning Law from the quagmire fast and that is if President Gloria Arroyo certifies the bill as urgent. “That would put more weight on the law,” Doroteo narrates spiritedly.
While violation of the FCTC treaty would not result in harsh sanctions like trade embargo, such act leads to the erosion of national pride and international shame. Dorotheo relates that the Philippines was among the countries that developed the guidelines for the FCTC. “The Philippines then made strong recommendations to shift from text-based health warning to picture-based health warning on cigarette packs and now we are not following it. On an international level, this will put our country to shame,” Dorotheo cautions.
An advocate, plain and simple
Dorotheo, who started as an FCTC volunteer in 2001, credits his parents as his main inspiration in being a stern tobacco control advocate. “They are both religious and have a heart for the poor,” he beams. During his early practice as a physician, he witnessed firsthand how tobacco made the poor poorer after they contracted tobacco-related illnesses such as lung cancer and emphysema. Dorotheo also noticed the scarcity of physicians involved in tobacco control advocacy. This, he took as a challenge to carry on the fight against the evils of tobacco.
From being an FCTC volunteer, Dorotheo eventually became one of the founding members of FCAP, the organization highly instrumental in the country’s ratification of the FCTC treaty. Currently, the FCAP is headed by two women doctors—Marilyn Lorenzo, MD, as president and Maricar Limpin, MD, as executive director. Dorotheo relates that the FCAP will continue to exist even when the Picture-Based Health Warning Law is passed, “It also has a watchdog function,” he clarifies.
To convey the dire circumstances of stalling the graphic health warning bill, the FCAP has set up “death clocks” on various locations in the country. It displays a countdown stating that for every day that passed without the bill being passed, the Philippines lost 240 Filipinos to tobacco-related diseases. “That’s 10 lives every hour,” stresses Dorotheo, concluding, “That’s a grim reminder not only to our policy makers but to our whole country as well.”
Online at: http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/sep/28/yehey/weekend/20080928week1.html
Tobacco control advocate Ulysses Dorotheo, MD
In defense of the PICTURE-BASED HEALTH WARNING LAW
By Perry Gil S. Mallari Reporter
The Philippines is in violation of an international treaty much of the world has been wise enough to heed. And with each day that we fail to comply more Filipinos spiral into addiction, die of debilitating diseases and cripple the economy. In September 5, 2005, the Philippines became a signatory to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the world’s first global health treaty signed by over a hundred nations.
As a party to this agreement, the Philippines is bound to implement its full measure come September 2008 including the passing of the Picture-Based Health Warning Law. The said bill when enacted would oblige tobacco companies to put graphic health warnings on cigarette packs.
The passing of the Picture-Based Health Warning Law is now stalled in the Lower House of Congress. Ulysses Dorotheo, MD, senior policy adviser of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance, Philippines (FCAP), expresses his concern on the implications of the treaty violation both on public health and the country’s international reputation.
Strong opposition
Dorotheo blames the strong opposition by a number of lawmakers in the Lower House for the delay of the passage of the Picture-Based Health Warning Law. He narrates that trouble began after three public hearings when the Health Committee decided to put up a technical working group (TWG) to appease the two camps of lawmakers debating on the bill. “At that time, the goal of the TWG was to arrive at a consensus and determine revisions if there are any but what happened was there was no discussion of the law from the very beginning, the northern block of lawmakers was just there to kill the bill,” he bemoans.
Dorotheo named two congressmen—Rep. Eric Singson of Ilocos Sur and Rep. Vincent Crisologo of the First District of Quezon City—as the lawmakers who are foremost in opposing the Picture-Based Health Warning Law. “Their contention was that our six million tobacco farmers and their families in the Ilocos region would go hungry if the graphic health warning law was passed,” he points out.
Counterargument
Dorotheo admits that the number was quite sizeable so FCAP decided to determine the validity of the argument. “We went to the Ilocos region and talked to the farmers there and we found out that that was not the case. They are already starving and many are neck-deep in debts,” he relates. Dorotheo adds that a lot of farmers they interviewed were willing to shift from tobacco farming to cultivating other crops if only they have the technical know-how and resources. The reason behind this, the physician explains, is that cultivating tobacco is a very labor-intensive chore, “It usually involves the whole family from dusk till dawn robbing them of a quality life.”
Dorotheo reveals that a number of party-list organizations have already exerted efforts to help the impoverished tobacco farmers to make the shift from tobacco farming to cultivating alternative crops but their funds were not released until now. “I don’t know what these lawmakers opposing the graphic health warning bill are doing to address this problem,” he intones. Based on the FCAP’s investigation, Dorotheo is adamant that there is no correlation at all between the passage of the Picture-Based Health Warning Law and the economic condition of Filipino tobacco farmers.
Dorotheo says that 23 countries and territories in the Asian region including Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong have already required the graphic health warning law. “Many of these states have lots of tobacco farmers but none of them suffered economically because their countries implemented the picture-based health warning bill,” he stresses.
Regardless of the impact of the graphic health warning law implementation on local tobacco farmers, two facts are undeniable:
1. The tobacco industry does not benefit the common farmer beyond meager sustenance. Despite centuries of trade and the great wealth accrued by cigarette companies, tobacco farmers remain poor.
According to the Solidarity of Peasants Against Exploitation (Stop-Ex) in August of this year, former tobacco farmers in La Union have successfully farmed corn for the last five years and could harvest and earn more with technical assistance from the government. With tobacco farming, traders charge high interest rates and control the buying price as a loan condition.
2. The cost to the national economy in lost man-hours, health expenses and mortality far outweigh any benefit the tobacco industry may produce.
According to the World Health Organization’s Smoking Statistics of 2002, “About 200,000 Filipino men will develop smoking-related diseases in their productive years of age. To provide health care for these sick men and to cover the loss in productivity, it was estimated that it would cost Filipino taxpayers some P43 billion… Every year, there are about 20,000 smoking-related deaths in the country… Tobacco use will drain nearly 20 percent of the household income of smokers’ families.”
Plan of actions
Dorotheo announces that FCAP is currently gathering support from other public sectors like environmental and urban poor groups to rescue the Picture-Based Health Warning Law. “This is for the good of everybody because it’s all about informing the public and the consumers of the lethal dangers of smoking,” he says, continuing, “The citizens must also do their part by writing their lawmakers, their priests and their business leaders on their concern regarding the issue.”
While the Picture-Based Health Warning Law was given a hard time in the Lower House, Dorotheo believes that it would sail smoothly in the Senate. “The two authors of the bill are Sen. Aquilino Pimentel and Sen. Pia Cayetano, the doctor says, adding, “The other senators say they want some clarifications but express no opposition to the law unlike some lawmakers in the Lower House.”
The intrepid physician emphasizes that there is really no rationalization for opposing the graphic health warning bill because it’s pro-health, pro-poor and pro-Filipino. “The lawmakers who are opposing this law are therefore anti-health, anti-poor and anti-Filipino,” he explains.
Dorotheo intones that there is one intervention that can pull out the Picture-Based Health Warning Law from the quagmire fast and that is if President Gloria Arroyo certifies the bill as urgent. “That would put more weight on the law,” Doroteo narrates spiritedly.
While violation of the FCTC treaty would not result in harsh sanctions like trade embargo, such act leads to the erosion of national pride and international shame. Dorotheo relates that the Philippines was among the countries that developed the guidelines for the FCTC. “The Philippines then made strong recommendations to shift from text-based health warning to picture-based health warning on cigarette packs and now we are not following it. On an international level, this will put our country to shame,” Dorotheo cautions.
An advocate, plain and simple
Dorotheo, who started as an FCTC volunteer in 2001, credits his parents as his main inspiration in being a stern tobacco control advocate. “They are both religious and have a heart for the poor,” he beams. During his early practice as a physician, he witnessed firsthand how tobacco made the poor poorer after they contracted tobacco-related illnesses such as lung cancer and emphysema. Dorotheo also noticed the scarcity of physicians involved in tobacco control advocacy. This, he took as a challenge to carry on the fight against the evils of tobacco.
From being an FCTC volunteer, Dorotheo eventually became one of the founding members of FCAP, the organization highly instrumental in the country’s ratification of the FCTC treaty. Currently, the FCAP is headed by two women doctors—Marilyn Lorenzo, MD, as president and Maricar Limpin, MD, as executive director. Dorotheo relates that the FCAP will continue to exist even when the Picture-Based Health Warning Law is passed, “It also has a watchdog function,” he clarifies.
To convey the dire circumstances of stalling the graphic health warning bill, the FCAP has set up “death clocks” on various locations in the country. It displays a countdown stating that for every day that passed without the bill being passed, the Philippines lost 240 Filipinos to tobacco-related diseases. “That’s 10 lives every hour,” stresses Dorotheo, concluding, “That’s a grim reminder not only to our policy makers but to our whole country as well.”
Online at: http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/sep/28/yehey/weekend/20080928week1.html
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Business World: The tobacco industry unmasked
Opinion
Posted on 08:29 PM, November 14, 2010 Yellow Pad -- By Ulysses Dorotheo
The tobacco industry unmasked
In dealing with tobacco and its health, social, economic, and environmental harms, governments should be guided by the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. This is an evidence-based treaty that reaffirms the right of all people to the highest standard of health. It is a response to the globalization of the tobacco epidemic, which claims 5.4 million lives each year.
One hundred seventy-one countries (including the Philippines) ratified the treaty in 2005, and is thus now part of the law of the land (superseding the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003, orRepublic Act 9211). Under this treaty, the Philippines committed to a range of measures to curb tobacco use.
Recently, the Philippine Aromatic Tobacco Development Association, Inc. (PATDA) wrote President Aquino, with an attached petition from the very newly formed PhilTobacco Growers Association Inc. (PTGA). Such letter would have readers incorrectly believe that our tobacco farmers and the Philippine tobacco industry will be "obliterated" by the government’s fulfillment of its obligations under the WHO FCTC, particularly at the coming fourth session of Conference of the Parties (COP4) in Uruguay on Nov. 15-20, 2010. Philip Morris and the Philippine Tobacco Institute also support this myth.
The tobacco industry prides itself on paying approximately P25-30 billion in excise taxes. But such taxes are low, and such revenues have been eroded by inflation and other weaknesses in the current sin tax law.
Yearly, tobacco-related diseases claim at least 90,000 Filipino lives and cost our country P281-461 billion in health care expenditures and productivity losses. Reducing these significant losses requires principled and unwavering political leadership from the Aquino administration. We offer these facts in response to some of the misinformation being spread by the tobacco industry.
1. Contrary to PATDA and PTGA claims, the WHO FCTC has the welfare of tobacco farmers and workers in mind. Under Articles 17 and 18, the treaty requires parties to promote economically viable alternative livelihoods for farmers and workers and to protect the environment and the health of persons in tobacco cultivation and manufacture. The Article 17 and 18 technical working group, which includes tobacco-growing countries, was mandated to prepare a report on these matters; this progress report will be considered at COP4.
2. The COP4 agenda includes the adoption of draft guidelines to assist parties in implementing Articles 9 and 10 of the WHO FCTC (Regulation of Contents of Tobacco Products and Tobacco Product Disclosures). The PATDA letter misleads when it says the proposed draft guidelines include a "ban on all kinds of ingredients in the manufacture of cigarettes...." The guidelines recommend that parties "prohibit or restrict" ingredients, such as candy or fruit flavors, that help make tobacco products attractive and encourage their use, especially among young people. The draft guidelines are not explicit on the kind of prohibition or restriction that the parties may apply on tobacco product ingredients. They are recommendatory, and each party has flexibility on which tobacco product ingredients to prohibit or restrict, taking into account the national situation and other appropriate circumstances.
3. PTGA claims there is a need to protect the livelihood of more than 2.7 million tobacco farmers and their families (PATDA refers to "millions" of Filipino farmers). While tobacco control advocates fight to protect the health of 92 billion Filipinos, we also champion the tobacco farmers’ welfare, in contrast to exploitation by tobacco leaf traders and tobacco companies. Thus we urge President Aquino to order a review of RA 7171 to see if this law has truly improved the lives of our tobacco farmers in Region I. Or if it has only benefited the region’s politicians who receive 15% of the tobacco excise tax. For example, according to the Commission on Audit, the Ilocos Sur tobacco excise tax share under RA 7171 funded several highly questionable projects costing over 1.3 billion pesos. Even without tobacco control, our tobacco farmers are already destitute. Let us learn from countries that are dependent on tobacco growing for foreign exchange, such as Malawi and Zimbabwe (who are not parties to the FCTC); they have remained poor and continue to suffer economic woes.
According to the National Tobacco Administration, there were 43,500 tobacco farmers in 2009. At an average of five members per household, the number of tobacco farmers and their families would thus total 217,500. Since modern cigarette manufacturing is almost completely mechanized, we imagine that the few million claimed to be tobacco industry workers belong to the marketing, distribution, and retail sectors, and hence are not solely dependent on the industry for their livelihood. Where are the "millions" claimed by PATDA and PTGA?
4. While it may be good to protect the stakeholders of most industries, the tobacco industry is unlike any another. It makes and sells a product that kills half of all its regular users; causes widespread human addiction, disease, and disability; poisons and destroys the environment; and negatively impacts families and national economies. Therefore it is ridiculous and illogical for PATDA to request that the delegation to COP4 be composed of representatives who will protect the industry’s interests. Among others, such action would violate Article 5.3 of the treaty, which requires parties to protect its public health policies from commercial and other vested interests of the industry.
We therefore appeal to President Aquino to protect all Filipinos from the many health, social, economic, and environmental harms of tobacco use and the interference of the tobacco industry.
Dr. Dorotheo is a public health advocate with 10 years of experience in tobacco control, including participation in the development of the WHO FCTC and meetings of the Conference of Parties to the treaty. He is currently the project director for the Southeast Asia Initiative on Tobacco Tax of the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA). He may be contacted at ulysses@seatca.org.
Published online at:
http://www.bworldonline.com/main/content.php?id=21157
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)