E-drug: WHO successor: tobacco control
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We don't really know the candidates' positions on tobacco control.
A question was asked at the recent forum with WHO candidates, but in the
mix of questions thrown at the candidates, was not answered at all.
(Joseph Williams of the Cook Islands did say separately that he wanted
to enter into "partnerships" with the industry.)
Quite belatedly, unfortunately, a series of questions were posed to the
candidates, in an open letter in the Lancet from the UICC/International
Union Against Cancer. So far as I know, no answers were received --
though, in fairness, the letter came very, very late in the process.
I've pasted the letter below.
--
Robert Weissman
Essential Information
P.O. Box 19405, Washington, DC 20036, USA
Tel: 1-202-387-8030
Fax: 1-202-234-5176
www.essential.org
<rob@essential.org>
Open letter to WHO Executive Board and candidates for Director General
(Published in the Jan 18, 2003 issue of The Lancet
http://www.thelancet.com/)
Sir--Tobacco use is projected to kill more than 10 million people
annually by 2025, and 70% of those deaths are expected to occur in
low-income countries. Between now and then, more than 150 million
people will die from tobacco use--more than all deaths attributed to
AIDS, automobile accidents, maternal mortality, homicide, and suicide
combined.
In recent years, WHO has provided exemplary leadership in seeking to
arrest the global tobacco pandemic. It has established the Tobacco Free
Initiative and started negotiations on a landmark international treaty:
the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
I write to you on behalf of the International Union Against Cancer
(UICC) and allied public-health advocates in support of maintaining and
strengthening this global leadership in tobacco control. We urge the WHO
Executive Committee and all prospective candidates for Director General
to address and seriously consider the following.
Currently, tobacco causes 7% of all deaths in the world, but a far
smaller proportion of WHO's budget is allocated to the promotion of
tobacco control policies and programmes that have proven highly
effective in preventing tobacco prevalence. Should not WHO's core budget
allocations at least reflect the proportionate death toll from tobacco
and the high potential for effectively stemming that escalating toll?
Should not intramural funding for tobacco control be increased? Should
there not also be increased staffing for WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative?
Gro Harlem Bruntland has used her position as Director General to
initiate the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and to propel
tobacco control to the forefront of WHO's agenda as well as to gain
worldwide media and political focus on the importance of tobacco
control. Should not the new Director General place a high priority on
advocating and supporting ratification and implementation of the
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control through comprehensive national
tobacco control laws and programmes?
In 2000, a WHO Committee of Experts concluded that "tobacco companies
have operated for many years with the deliberate purpose of subverting
the efforts of WHO to control tobacco use. The attempted subversion has
been elaborate, well-financed, sophisticated and usually invisible."
This committee's recommendations included: protecting the integrity of
WHO's decision-making process by requiring disclosure of affiliations
between tobacco companies and WHO employees, World Health Assembly
delegates, and non-governmental organisations; and protecting the public
from future tobacco industry misconduct by requiring WHO to monitor
tobacco industry activity and issuing regular public reports on its
findings to ensure tobacco company misconduct does not remain hidden.
What steps should the Director General take to ensure that these and
other recommendations of the Committee of Experts are implemented?
The Millennium Development Goals have set important targets for public
health advances in numerous areas, but not for non-communicable
diseases. What measures should the Director General apply to assess
global success or failure in stemming the tobacco epidemic? What targets
should the Director General set for WHO's tobacco control programmes and
interventions?
On behalf of the UICC's 290 member organisations throughout the world, I
respectfully request the attention of the Executive Committee and of
each of the candidates for Director General to these critical questions.
There is no single set of issues that you are likely to address that has
greater potential for reducing pain, misery, and death throughout the
world.
John R Seffrin
International Union Against Cancer, Geneva, Switzerland
(e-mail:john.seffrin@cancer.org)
--
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