By DONALD G. MCNEIL JR
Published: July 24, 2008
The World Health Organization estimates that tobacco will kill up to a billion people in the 21st century, 10 times as many as it killed in the 20th.
This time, most are expected to be in poor countries like Bangladesh and middle-income countries like Russia. In an effort to cut that number, Mr. Bloomberg’s foundation plans to commit $250 million over four years on top of a $125 million gift he announced two years ago. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is allocating $125 million over five years.
Since 1999, the Gates Foundation has spent more than $2 billion on AIDS programs and about $1.2 billion on malaria. Mr. Gates has just left his Microsoft post for full-time foundation work and said he intends to form partnerships with other philanthropists.
The announcement was made at a joint news conference at TheTimesCenter in Midtown Manhattan attended by foundation staffers and foreign students enrolled in a tobacco control program at Johns Hopkins University that is supported by Mr. Bloomberg. He has campaigned against smoking for years, but this is a new direction for the Gates Foundation.
Thanking Mr. Gates, Mr. Bloomberg said, “I’m an optimist, but I’m also a realist.”
“All the money in the world will never eradicate tobacco,” he added. “But this partnership underscores how much the tide is turning against this deadly epidemic.” The new donations far outstrip current spending of about $20 million a year on antismoking campaigns in poor and middle-income countries, according to a recent W.H.O. report.
The $500 million would be spent on a multipronged campaign — nicknamed Mpower — that Mr. Bloomberg and Dr. Margaret Chan, director of the health organization, outlined in February. It coordinates efforts by the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, the World Health Organization, the World Lung Foundation, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the foundation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
It will urge governments to sharply raise tobacco taxes, prohibit smoking in public places, outlaw advertising to children and cigarette giveaways, start antismoking advertising campaigns and offer people nicotine patches or other help quitting. Health officials, consumer advocates, journalists, tax officers and others from third world countries will be brought to the United States for workshops on topics like lobbying, public service advertising, catching cigarette smugglers and running telephone help lines for smokers wanting to quit. A list of grants is at tobaccocontrolgrants.org.
Dr. Richard Peto, an Oxford epidemiologist who leads studies on the effects of smoking in the developing world, called the announcement “excellent news.”
“I reckon this will avoid tens of millions of deaths in my lifetime and hundreds of millions in my kids’ lifetimes,” he said.
Catherine Armstrong, a spokeswoman for British American Tobacco — one of the Western tobacco companies that focuses on sales to the third world — would not comment directly on the new initiative. But she said, “We have no problem with government organizations educating people on the risks of tobacco.”
A spokesman for Philip Morris, which makes Marlboro, the world’s most popular cigarette brand, said the company agreed that children should be kept from smoking but thought that raising cigarette taxes promoted smuggling and counterfeiting.
Mr. Bloomberg, founder of the financial news company bearing his name and creator of the Bloomberg Family Foundation, has long been known for his antipathy to tobacco. During his administration, New York has adopted several antismoking measures, including a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, and significant increases in cigarette taxes.
The global campaign promises to be a struggle. Cigarettes not only are highly addictive and supported by huge advertising campaigns, they are also an important source of income for many foreign governments. In China and other countries, tobacco is a state-owned monopoly, and low- and middle-income countries collect $66 billion a year in tobacco taxes.
Only about 5 percent of the world’s countries have any antismoking measures like those the campaign envisions. But Dr. Peto said antismoking campaigns were already having some effects, even in countries where no-smoking signs are often ignored. He surveyed thousands of tobacco users in China in the 1990s — “before the government was taking it seriously,” he said — and found 4 percent who identified themselves as former smokers. Now, he said, 20 percent do.
In India, where people have long chewed tobacco but widespread smoking is more recent, Dr. Peto said he found almost no one who had quit. “India is where China was in the mid-1990s,” he said.
Smoking is not widespread in most of Africa, where only about 20 percent of men smoke, and Mr. Gates said on Wednesday that he hoped to prevent a surge in smoking there.
Waves of lung cancer deaths — which typically begin about 40 years after smoking takes hold in a society — help convince the next generation that smoking is dangerous, as in the United States in the 1960s, Dr. Peto said. And, he added, “When doctors and journalists start to take it seriously, things start to change.”
The Gates Foundation’s main focus has been global health, but up until now it has concentrated mostly on infectious diseases. Mr. Gates said he had been “looking at” tobacco deaths but was unsure what to do. “We were thrilled when Michael and his experts took the lead,” he said.
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Thursday 24 July 2008
Thursday 5 June 2008
Why do we need a total ban on advertising, promotion and sponsorship?
1. The tobacco industry spends billions of dollars each year spreading its marketing net as widely as possible to attract young customers, targeting youth in fun and familiar environments, at the movies, on the Internet, in fashion magazines, and at music concerts and sports events.
2. The tobacco industry uses increasingly creative tactics to boost the sale of its products. Adverts on billboards, in magazines and on the Internet, comprise only one strand of the complex tobacco marketing net. The industry also ensures its products are highly visible in movies, on television and in the world of fashion. Tobacco companies sponsor sports and entertainment events, hand out branded items and organize numerous popular promotional activities in an attempt to win and keep their customers.
3. Only total bans can break the tobacco marketing net. The industry has numerous ways of targeting youth and partial bans merely allow companies to shift their vast resources from one promotional tactic to another.
2. The tobacco industry uses increasingly creative tactics to boost the sale of its products. Adverts on billboards, in magazines and on the Internet, comprise only one strand of the complex tobacco marketing net. The industry also ensures its products are highly visible in movies, on television and in the world of fashion. Tobacco companies sponsor sports and entertainment events, hand out branded items and organize numerous popular promotional activities in an attempt to win and keep their customers.
3. Only total bans can break the tobacco marketing net. The industry has numerous ways of targeting youth and partial bans merely allow companies to shift their vast resources from one promotional tactic to another.
Why are tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship a threat to young people?
The more exposed to tobacco advertising young people are, the more likely they are to use tobacco. The tobacco industry falsely associates use of its products with desirable qualities such as glamour, energy and sex appeal as well as with exciting activities and adventure.
Widespread tobacco advertising “normalizes” tobacco use, portraying it as being no different from any other consumer product, and making it difficult for young people to understand the hazards of its use.
Young people underestimate the risk of becoming addicted to nicotine and the tragic health consequences that can follow.
Widespread tobacco advertising “normalizes” tobacco use, portraying it as being no different from any other consumer product, and making it difficult for young people to understand the hazards of its use.
Young people underestimate the risk of becoming addicted to nicotine and the tragic health consequences that can follow.
The Campaign
Globally, most people start smoking before the age of 18, with almost a quarter of those beginning before the age of 10. The younger children are when they first try smoking, the more likely they are to become regular tobacco users and the less likely they are to quit.
A strong link between advertising and smoking in young people has been proven. The more aware and appreciative young people are of tobacco advertising, the more likely they are to smoke or say they intend to. As a result, the tobacco industry spends billions of dollars worldwide each year spreading its marketing net as widely as possible to attract young customers. Tobacco companies market their products wherever youth can be easily accessed - in the movies, on the Internet,
in fashion magazines, and at music concerts and sports events.
A strong link between advertising and smoking in young people has been proven. The more aware and appreciative young people are of tobacco advertising, the more likely they are to smoke or say they intend to. As a result, the tobacco industry spends billions of dollars worldwide each year spreading its marketing net as widely as possible to attract young customers. Tobacco companies market their products wherever youth can be easily accessed - in the movies, on the Internet,
in fashion magazines, and at music concerts and sports events.
WHO named as one of five partners to implement Michael Bloomberg's $125 million initiative to promote freedom from smoking
GENEVA -- In August, Michael R. Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City, announced his commitment to donate US$125 million towards an initiative to end the global tobacco epidemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) is pleased to be one of the five key partners in the initiative and looks forward to working closely with the other partners.
:: Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI)
This initiative presents an opportunity to immediately scale up tobacco control efforts in developing countries where the health burden is the highest. Working with other project partners, WHO (through its Tobacco Free Initiative) will play an important leadership role in strengthening tobacco control systems by working to ensure that country level interventions are effective and in line with best evidence and policies.
Specifically, WHO will expand the public-sector support and guidance it already provides to help governments around the world develop national tobacco control plans, pass and enforce key laws and implement effective policies and tobacco control measures. Those measures include tobacco tax increases, advertising bans, mandatory health warning labels and smoking bans, as set out in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), the key international treaty on tobacco control.
WHO will continue to lead the development and setting of international standards on tobacco control, working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Foundation on global surveillance of tobacco use. At the same time, WHO will work with the World Lung Foundation to advance ongoing monitoring activities that measure how effectively tobacco control policies are implemented at the country level.
Mr Bloomberg's generous donation injects valuable momentum into our shared effort to reduce the global burden of disease and death caused by tobacco. WHO welcomes the opportunity to be part of this initiative and looks forward to working with the other project partners.
The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is one of the most widely endorsed treaties in UN history, with 140 Parties.
Note to Editors
In addition to the WHO, other partner organizations in the initiative include the Campaign for Tobacco Free-Kids, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Foundation, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the World Lung Foundation.
For more information, please contact:
Marta Seoane
Communications Officer
Tobacco Free Initiative, WHO
Telephone: +41 79 791 2489
Mobile: +41 79 475 5551
E-mail: seoanem@who.int
:: Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI)
This initiative presents an opportunity to immediately scale up tobacco control efforts in developing countries where the health burden is the highest. Working with other project partners, WHO (through its Tobacco Free Initiative) will play an important leadership role in strengthening tobacco control systems by working to ensure that country level interventions are effective and in line with best evidence and policies.
Specifically, WHO will expand the public-sector support and guidance it already provides to help governments around the world develop national tobacco control plans, pass and enforce key laws and implement effective policies and tobacco control measures. Those measures include tobacco tax increases, advertising bans, mandatory health warning labels and smoking bans, as set out in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), the key international treaty on tobacco control.
WHO will continue to lead the development and setting of international standards on tobacco control, working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Foundation on global surveillance of tobacco use. At the same time, WHO will work with the World Lung Foundation to advance ongoing monitoring activities that measure how effectively tobacco control policies are implemented at the country level.
Mr Bloomberg's generous donation injects valuable momentum into our shared effort to reduce the global burden of disease and death caused by tobacco. WHO welcomes the opportunity to be part of this initiative and looks forward to working with the other project partners.
The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is one of the most widely endorsed treaties in UN history, with 140 Parties.
Note to Editors
In addition to the WHO, other partner organizations in the initiative include the Campaign for Tobacco Free-Kids, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Foundation, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the World Lung Foundation.
For more information, please contact:
Marta Seoane
Communications Officer
Tobacco Free Initiative, WHO
Telephone: +41 79 791 2489
Mobile: +41 79 475 5551
E-mail: seoanem@who.int
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