Fight Big Tobacco, urges WHO on No Tobacco Day

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday marked World No Tobacco Day with a strong call to the public to oppose the aggressive attempts of the tobacco industry to undermine laws that protect the people from the harm of smoking.

“The tobacco industry is throwing more of its huge power and resources at the laws that protect people from exposure to tobacco marketing and smoke. Its goal is simple—to increase profits at the cost of human misery,” said Dr. Shin Young-soo, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific.

“We must resist. Denounce industry interference wherever you see it… tell Big Tobacco to keep its hands off public health,” the WHO official said.

Tobacco use is among the leading causes of preventable death, killing nearly six million people per year, of whom more than 600,000 are nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke, according to the WHO.

At least 33 percent of the world’s roughly one billion smokers are in the Western Pacific region, which includes the Philippines.  The region has the highest prevalence of smoking among men.  But the trend is also fast increasing among women and the youth, the WHO said.

17-M Filipino smokers

According to the Department of Health, the Philippines has approximately 17.3 million smokers. Smoking is one of the three major risk factors of cardiovascular disease, cancer and other respiratory illnesses, which make up 60 percent of all the deaths in the country.

Globally, smoking caused over 100 million deaths in the 20th century. If no urgent action is taken to control the tobacco epidemic, the annual death toll could reach one billion in the 21st century, said the WHO.

“The tobacco industry is getting more aggressive and brazen,” said Shin. “On World No Tobacco Day and throughout the year, the WHO will educate policymakers and the public about the industry’s nefarious and harmful interference with the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.”

The WHO-FCTC is a global treaty signed by 174 countries, including the Philippines, which aims to curb tobacco use and its promotion.

The WHO on Wednesday noted that the parties’ efforts to meet their obligations under the treaty had sparked a “fierce counter-reaction” from the tobacco industry.

The organization cited Philip Morris International’s legal action against Australia under the country’s bilateral investment treaty with Hong Kong on the grounds that the former’s plain packaging law infringed on international trademarks.

The WHO also noted that the tobacco industry continued to amplify its “corporate social responsibility” programs, undermining public health laws and supposedly making people forget that its products cause addiction, suffering and death.