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Distinguished Delegates,
Colleagues,
A warm welcome to all of you in the
Intergovernmental Negotiating Body who are gathered in Geneva to begin
the drafting of the International Framework Convention on Tobacco
Control. I am very pleased that, although I am on the other side of
the globe for the opening of the Paralympics , I am able to follow the
opening of this week’s proceedings.
The work you are beginning today is of immense
importance. When I became Director-General of WHO, in 1998, estimates
indicated that 4 million people were dying each year as a result of
tobacco use. Forward projections suggested a major epidemic with 10
million deaths a year in 2030, most of them in developing countries.
This is more than the combined deaths from malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS
and several major maternal and childhood conditions. That is why I
declared global tobacco control as a priority.
Data provided by WHO's member states confirm the
dramatic picture. Tobacco causes one fifth of all deaths due to
cardiovascular diseases. In 1999, cardiovascular diseases accounted
for about one in ten deaths in Africa; three in ten deaths in South
East Asia; 33 per cent of all deaths in the Americas, as well as in
WHO's Eastern Mediterranean and Western Pacific regions; and 50 per
cent of all deaths in the European region.
Tobacco causes one in three cancers deaths
world-wide. Cancer accounts for one in 20 deaths in Africa; one in 14
deaths in South-East Asia and in the Eastern Mediterranean region; and
one in 5 deaths in the Americas, Europe and the Western Pacific.
The future looks bleak. The continued marketing of
tobacco products to the youth of today means millions of deaths in 30
to 40 years' time. Surveys in developing and transition countries show
that about 20% of school children aged 13 to 15 are already current
users of tobacco products. One in four of these young people started
the habit before the age of 10. More than two-thirds of them would
like to quit.
WHO has made the scientific evidence available to
all. Tobacco kills. Well over a billion people are addicted to
tobacco: most started when very young. They are encouraged to start -
and to keep going - through the skilful marketing of tobacco products.
The majority would like to quit but find it very difficult to do so.
Governments could do much more to discourage smoking and to help
kicking the habit.
Tobacco-related deaths are preventable. The actions
necessary to prevent them are known and cost effective. They require
minimal investments. But government action is necessary, and
inter-governmental agreement is the key to progress.
Countries who have put in place these measures have
been able to reduce the number of tobacco users.
But over the past fifteen years, we have seen that
modern technology, has limited the effectiveness of national action.
Tobacco advertising is beamed into every country via satellite and
cable. Developing countries are the subject of massive marketing
campaigns by international tobacco companies. In the slipstream of
increasing global trade, new markets are opened to international
tobacco companies which see these emerging markets as their main
opportunity to compensate for stagnant or dwindling markets in many
industrialized countries.
When challenged, tobacco companies choose to divert
attention from the dramatic public health consequences of tobacco use.
They talk of the "right to smoke" and of benefits to
economies. They have denied the dangers of their products. They have
systematically discredited individuals, institutions and processes
that genuinely seek to improve people's well being through the control
of tobacco. We know that they have tried to undermine the World Health
Organisation and the office of the Director General.
In the public hearings that took place here in
Geneva last week, some tobacco companies proposed joint work with the
public health community. However, at the same time, they oppose the
interventions that we know to have a measurable and sustained impact
on tobacco.
So, I urge cautious responses to overtures from
tobacco companies. Ask them: are they offering to work on measures
that really will have an impact on people's well-being? If so, they
would seek less tobacco use and thereby fewer tobacco deaths. This
would mean fewer smokers, and lower profits.
Thus far, companies are offering to work on
measures that have only a limited impact on youth and adult
consumption. Let us remember - tobacco remains the only legal consumer
product that kills half of its regular users.
We need a global response to what is an emerging
global health threat. Our challenge is to turn bold words for health
into a useful legal instrument so that countries can support each
other in their efforts to regulate tobacco, and save the lives of
their people.
In resolutions unanimously adopted by the World
Health Assembly in May 1998 and 1999, Member States gave themselves
the political mandate to negotiate a Framework Convention on Tobacco
Control – or FCTC. Two intergovernmental bodies were established -
as subsidiary bodies of the Assembly. One was a working group on the
Framework Convention. The other was this Intergovernmental Negotiating
Body.
At its two previous meetings, the FCTC Working
Group laid the technical foundation for the work of the Negotiating
Body. WHO, the World Bank and public health experts have identified
the interventions that can have a measurable and sustained impact on
tobacco use.
These are a combination of :
-
increased excise taxes,
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bans on tobacco advertizing, sponsorship and
marketing,
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controls on smoking in public places,
-
expanded access to effective means of
quitting,
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tough counter-advertizing and
-
tight controls on smuggling.
The Working Group established the dimensions of the
tobacco epidemic. It confirmed the actions that need to be taken. Now
is the time for Member States to focus on these interventions as they
deliberate on what should be included - both in the Framework
Convention and in their national laws and policies.
Colleagues,
I appreciate the hard work within national
governments to secure agreed positions between health, trade and
agriculture, national finance and judicial interests.
I recognize that the work of the Negotiating Body
will not be straightforward, and that there will be big demands on the
expertise and patience of delegates. The WHO secretariat is on hand to
help all delegates - particularly those within the bureau - as they
take forward their important tasks.
The next few days are vitally important for
World Health. Member States have the opportunity to change the
course of history.
I hope that delegations will reach agreement on
wording for a convention that really can make a difference. The
reality is that tobacco kills one person somewhere in the world
every eight seconds. Any delay will be reflected in more unnecessary
deaths - not only now, but for years to come.
It is an unprecedented effort, and a noble one. I
wish you all the best in your work this week.
Thank you. |
