2011 Judy Wilkenfeld Award for International Tobacco Control Excellence

Remarks given on 18 May 2011 in Washington DC when receiving the Judy Wilkenfeld Award for International Tobacco Control Excellence

Colleagues and friends, ladies and gentlemen, good evening.

Some of you are wondering how an eye doctor became a tobacco control advocate. Ten years ago, I would’ve wondered the same thing.  A medical education and years of working in the government-owned Philippine General Hospital had certainly given me a glimpse of the social and economic burden of disease borne by the poor in my country. Before tobacco control beckoned, I was gearing up for public health advocacy focused on blindness prevention.

Before I got hooked, I had no idea that more than half of all adult Filipino males smoked, or that ten Filipinos died every hour from tobacco use, or that tobacco back then killed more than 4 million people globally each year. I certainly had never heard about the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, and prior to 2001, I had been blissfully unaware of the lies and half-truths, manipulativeness, callousness, and outright arrogance of the tobacco industry.

But as fate would have it, I learned about tobacco, about tobacco control and the FCTC, and most importantly, about the tobacco industry.  It was awful enough to realize that back then only a handful of people in my country knew or cared about the tobacco epidemic, but I was more disgusted to know that as early as the 1980s, the tobacco industry had already trained its sights on developing nations: “We want Asia,” said one industry executive, and I was sickened to find out how tobacco industry executives and lawyers for decades denied in public what they knew in private as the truth about nicotine addiction and tobacco-caused health harms.  In fact, it was a Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids publication titled “Trust Us, We’re the Tobacco Industry” that fueled my passion. 

Since then, I have been privileged to work alongside equally dedicated and passionate colleagues in pushing for the FCTC and the strongest possible evidence-based tobacco control policies to be implemented in the Philippines, in Southeast Asia, and throughout the world.  Thus, I am deeply honored to receive tonight the Judy Wilkenfeld award, not only because it recognizes personal achievements, but more significantly because it embodies the traits for which Judy was known: respecting diversity, working to build consensus and bring people together, and serving as a mentor and role model for others. As a young volunteer, I was encouraged and supported by tobacco control giants in Asia such as Daniel Tan, Harley Stanton, and Judith Mackay.  Since joining the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance or SEATCA, I have been guided and inspired by Mary Assunta and Bungon Ritthiphakdee, two of the most diligent, courageous, and visionary advocates I have ever known. But more than just mentoring, I would underscore the larger concepts of teamwork and coalition building, which are of vital importance in low and middle-income countries with severely limited financial resources for tobacco control.  In this context, my story is not unique. There are many other tobacco control advocates in low and middle-income Asian countries working together tirelessly and without thought of reward or recognition.   I accept this award also on their behalf.

The battle, however, is far from over. While SEATCA has helped advocates make steady progress towards achieving 100% smoke-free environments, comprehensive tobacco advertising bans, large pictorial health warnings, and more recently higher tobacco taxes and prices, the cards are still stacked against us. In mega-countries such as China, tobacco use continues to claim 1 million lives each year. Indonesian men, women, and children continue to be bombarded with tobacco advertisements, promotions, and sponsorships. And similar to other developing nations in Southeast Asia, cigarettes remain extremely affordable in the Philippines at less than 70 US cents per pack of Marlboros.

I therefore stand here tonight with a challenge and an appeal to all of you: help us right these wrongs! The Marlboro cowboy may have ridden out of the US, but we are continually taking on Philip Morris and other transnational tobacco companies in the Philippines and in Asia. We need to fight collectively to ensure that public health is prioritized over international trade.

The United States has demonstrated it can do tobacco control in many ways, however it can go further to be a world leader in fighting the tobacco pandemic. Next year, when the Australian government introduces the world’s first plain, standardized cigarette packaging, cigarette packs sold in the U.S. will finally carry pictorial health warnings that cover 50% of the pack’s front and back.  I urge the United States to also ratify the FCTC and join the 172 countries that are already party to it. What about incorporating tobacco and non-communicable diseases in USAID’s Global Health Initiative? All these measures will have a significantly positive impact on tobacco control internationally.

For most folks, some of the many things you can do to help would include urging your local and state governments to pass smokefree laws that cover all workplaces and public places; or donating 50 or 100 dollars a month to CTFK to help train and support more youth advocates, whether in the US or internationally, some of whom may grow up to be their country’s next leaders; considering the size of this audience, that would be a huge amount for a developing country.

The point is this: 5.4 million tobacco deaths every year is 5.4 million more than we can or should tolerate, but working together, we can make a difference, so that one day, our children or grandchildren will live in a tobacco-free world.

Related links

Asian Journal: Dr. E. Ulysses Dorotheo, 2011 Recipient of the Prestigious Judy Wilkenfeld Award for Tobacco Control

Tobacco Industry: “We want Asia” - Yul Dorotheo of the Philippines speaks on the international challenge of tobacco control

Respiratory Decade: PREPARING WORLD NO TOBACCO DAY 2011 WITH RESPIRATO...: "The next World No Tobacco Day will take place on Tuesday, 31 May 2011 and Respiratory Decade is starting to publish materials about smoking..."

World No Tobacco Day 2011

Theme: The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

13 JANUARY 2011 - The World Health Organization (WHO) selects "The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control" as the theme of the next World No Tobacco Day, which will take place on Tuesday, 31 May 2011.

The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) is the world's foremost tobacco control instrument. The first treaty ever negotiated under the auspices of WHO, it represents a signal achievement in the advancement of public health. In force only since 2005, it is already one of the most rapidly and widely embraced treaties in the history of the United Nations, with more than 170 Parties. An evidence-based treaty, it reaffirms the right of all people to the highest standard of health and provides new legal dimensions for cooperation in tobacco control.

World No Tobacco Day 2011 will be designed to highlight the treaty's overall importance, to stress Parties' obligations under the treaty and to promote the essential role of the Conference of the Parties and WHO in supporting countries' efforts to meet those obligations. The Conference of the Parties is the treaty's central organ and governing body.

The world needs the WHO FCTC as much as, if not more than, it did in 1996 when the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution calling for an international framework convention on tobacco control. Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death. This year, more than 5 million people will die from a tobacco-related heart attack, stroke, cancer, lung ailment or other disease. That does not include the more than 600,000 people – more than a quarter of them children – who will die from exposure to second-hand smoke. The annual death toll from the global epidemic of tobacco use could rise to 8 million by 2030. Having killed 100 million people during the 20th century, tobacco use could kill 1 billion during the 21st century.

As with any other treaty, the WHO FCTC confers legal obligations on its Parties – that is, on the countries (and the European Union) that have formally acceded to it.

Among these obligations are those to:

• Protect public health policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry.
• Adopt price and tax measures to reduce the demand for tobacco.
• Protect people from exposure to tobacco smoke.
• Regulate the contents of tobacco products.
• Regulate tobacco product disclosures.
• Regulate the packaging and labeling of tobacco products.
• Warn people about the dangers of tobacco.
• Ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
• Offer people help to end their addiction to tobacco.
• Control the illicit trade in tobacco products.
• Ban sales to and by minors.
• Support economically viable alternative to tobacco growing.

Related articles

• ASEAN meeting on tobacco control opens (lookatvietnam.com)

Global Health Ministers Support Quicker Implementation of Tobacco-Control Treaty

Update: Global Health Chiefs Back Quicker Implementation of Tobacco-Control Treaty - Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids

Update: Global Health Chiefs Back Quicker Implementation of Tobacco-Control Treaty

Posted by: Editor | May 2, 2011

Health ministers meeting in Moscow last week declared that speeding up implementation of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is critical to addressing the growing threat from non-communicable diseases, which cause nearly two out of three deaths around the globe. They also called on more countries to ratify the pact.

Tobacco use is a risk factor for all of the leading non-communicable diseases, including cancer, heart disease, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes. Earlier in the week the WHO named effective tobacco control policies as being among the top 10 "best buys" that governments can implement to reduce disease and save lives.

The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is the world’s first public health treaty. It commits nations to implement scientifically proven measures to reduce tobacco use, including smoke-free air policies; bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship; large, graphic health warnings; and higher taxes on tobacco products. There are 172 parties to the treaty, covering 87 percent of the world’s population. The United States has signed the pact, but not yet ratified it.

Political commitment and the will to resist tobacco industry lobbying and interference are critical to progress. As The Washington Post put it: “… a cigarette is not like a microbe: It can’t be eliminated by a doctor. Fighting chronic diseases requires political decisions — in areas as disparate as finance, regulatory policy, agriculture, education and trade — and the will to see them through.”

Targeting women with appetite depressants in cigarettes

Skinny and Sick? - Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids

Skinny and Sick?

New Study: tobacco companies spiked cigarettes with diet aids to hook people worried about weight

Posted by: Editor | May 4, 2011

It's been nearly a century since Lucky Strike first used the slogan "Reach for A Lucky Instead of A Sweet" and decades since the early Virginia Slims advertising campaign depicted women who smoke as independent, stylish, sexy — and of course slim — to market to women and girls.

But slogans and sophisticated images weren't the only tricks in the tobacco industry's scheme to keep people smoking.

According to a new study published in The European Journal of Public Health, the companies added appetite suppressants to cigarettes "to enhance the effects of smoking on appetite and body weight" — and to stoke smokers' fears of gaining weight if they quit.

"We found clear evidence that every one of the six U.S. and U.K tobacco companies elaborated the idea to put appetite depressants molecule [sic] inside cigarettes to enhance this effect," the researchers wrote. At least two companies — Philip Morris and British American Tobacco — modified their products "to affect appetite and body weight."

The researchers studied industry documents released with the 1998 settlement of U.S. state lawsuits against the tobacco companies. Previously disclosed documents have showed the lengths to which the big tobacco companies went to get women and girls to smoke — and keep smoking.

Women smokers, the industry knew, were most likely to want to be skinny even if they understood that by smoking, they risked getting sick.

"As a matter of fact, advertisements in magazines is the most efficient way to talk to these female smokers," a 1993 Philip Morris document states. "… Actually, one of their main … values is to look attractive. In other words, a woman cannot be attractive if she is fat."

The industry's targeting of women and girls continues. In 2008, Philip Morris announced the makeover of its Virginia Slims brand into "purse packs" — small, cosmetic-like packs that contain "superslim" cigarettes. In January 2007, R.J. Reynolds launched its Camel No. 9 cigarettes pitched to the "most fashion forward woman."

Under the new law giving the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco products in the United States, tobacco companies must disclose to regulators changes, including the introduction of additives, that are made in cigarettes.

No more doctoring them with diet aids. And less ability to exploit the pressure women feel to be thin.