U.S. stands accused of trying to extinguish
tough anti-smoking measures
But health activists said the draft treaty in its current form
was too weak to dent the rising death toll and accused the United
States — the original driving force behind the accord — of watering
it down.
"The treaty really could have been much better," said Tom
Novotny, a former U.S. assistant surgeon general who headed the U.S.
delegation until 2001. "It really isn't very becoming for the United
States to show such lack of leadership on tobacco control," said
Novotny who said he quit as chief negotiator to protest orders by
President George W. Bush (news
- web
sites)'s administration to weaken the text.
The so-called Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is meant to
restrict advertising and marketing, control labeling, cut secondhand
smoke and limit smuggling and thereby slow the anticipated explosion
in cancers and heart disease. Since negotiations opened in October
1999, an estimated 13.3 million people have died of smoking-related
disease.
The final round of talks opens Monday and is expected to be
stormy.
African and Asian countries are angry that the text drawn up by
negotiating chairman Luis Felipe de Seixas Correa falls short of
demands by the majority of countries for a total ban on advertising.
The United States has long held out against a total ban, saying this
would violate its constitutional provisions on free speech.
U.S. Health and Human Services (news
- web
sites) Secretary Tommy Thompson said the United States was fully
committed to a "strong and dynamic" treaty to fight the "devastating
health, economic and social consequences of worldwide tobacco
consumption."
"In America, more than 400,000 people die each year from a
smoking related disease - primarily lung cancer, heart disease and
chronic lung disease - resulting in expenditures of more than US$75
billion annually in direct medical costs," he said in a statement.
U.S. activists have questioned the commitment of the Bush
administration, accusing it of maintaining close links with tobacco
multinationals. Thompson himself received US$72,000 in contributions
from Philip Morris between 1993 and 2000 when he was Wisconsin
governor.
"We are calling on the Bush administration to stop blocking
progress on the world's first public health treaty," said Kathryn
Mulvey, executive director of the corporate accountability group
Infact.
However, WHO chief Brundtland said she believed that agreement
was close and that the treaty would have a real impact.
"Finalizing a text to support real reductions in tobacco use will
be a triumph for public health," said Brundtland, who wants WHO's
governing World Health Assembly to approve the treaty in May,
shortly before she leaves office this July.
The draft text says countries should take measures to "restrict
tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship in accordance with
its national constitution," saying that these "may" include a total
ban.
It drops an explicit reference contained in a previous version of
the text to a progressive ban on sponsorship of sports and cultural
events, and drops proposals to phase out vending machines.
It introduces new requirement for health warnings to take up at
least 30 percent of a cigarette packet, and says labeling should not
be misleading, but removes an explicit prohibition of terms such as
"mild," "low tar" and "light."
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On the Net:
WHO anti-tobacco treaty is at http://rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_wo_en_ge/inlinks/*http://www.who.int/tobacco
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