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Tobacco wars: Singapore the picture of
health
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK - Smoking will not be the same in
Singapore a year from now, when the city-state's latest
anti-smoking policy shows its face. All cigarette
packets will have to bear graphic pictures warning
smokers about the dangers of their habit.
This
decision makes Singapore a leader in Asia. Only two
other countries - Canada and Brazil - have opted to use
such visually graphic means to control the spread of
tobacco use.
Singapore's move comes on top of
the fact that the country already enjoys the honor of
becoming, in 1971, the first Asian country to ban
tobacco advertisements.
Little wonder such an
initiative by this Southeast Asian nation - which is
known for its strong government controls and
social-engineering policies to achieve a high standard
of living - is winning applause from the region's
anti-smoking lobby.
"They do work, and that is
why tobacco companies fear pictorial warnings," said
Mary Assunta of the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control
Alliance (SATCA).
This decision "will augur well
for other Asian countries", a statement released by
SATCA declared, adding that it becomes relevant at a
time when "tobacco consumption continues to rise in
Asia".
"The use of pictorial health warnings on
cigarette packs is intended as visual cues to prompt
smokers to take action to quit," Choo Linn, manager of
Singapore's National Smoking Control Program, said in an
e-mail interview. "The cigarette companies have shown
support for the requirement of pictorial warnings."
Under this recently approved measure, cigarette
packets hitting the stands after August 1, 2004, will
have to have up to 50 percent of their front and back
covers bearing any of the six pictures that the
Singapore government has chosen to appear on a
rotational basis.
According to the Framework
Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the world's first
public-health treaty that was adopted by the World
Health Organization's (WHO) 192 member states this year,
anti-smoking warnings on cigarette packets should range
from a minimum of a third of the packet to half of it.
Pictorial warnings, however, were left as an option for
governments to decide on.
Currently, an
estimated 14 percent of Singapore's 4.1 million
population smoke, with males dominating the trend.
"However, Singapore is observing a worrying up-trend in
the number of young female smokers," said Choo Linn.
"The smoking rate in females aged 18-24 years has
increased from 2.8 percent in 1992 to 8 percent in
2001."
But if Singapore's efforts illustrate the
extent to which Southeast Asian countries are pushing
ahead to get people kick the cigarette habit, the
situation in Cambodia suggests the other end of this
trend.
"In Cambodia there is still no complete
ban on cigarette advertising; it is restricted to
certain media," said Assunta. "The advertisement content
or design is not regulated, sponsorship by tobacco
companies is allowed, there is no ban on sale to minors
[and] free sampling is allowed."
The consequence
of such laissez-faire policies is reflected in the
smoking rates. According to available reports, in
Cambodia, which has a population of 13.5 million people,
close to 60 percent or two-thirds of the rural men
smoke.
The smoking rate in the region's largest
country, Indonesia, which has a population of 214
million people, is as high, and so, too, in Vietnam,
states the SATCA. "Tobacco consumption continues to rise
in Asia at approximately 8 percent per annum.
"Tobacco transnational companies such as British
American Tobacco (BAT), Philip Morris, Japan Tobacco,
have taken advantage of the differential legislative
requirements in the ASEAN [Association of Southeast
Asian Nations] region and as a result consumers have
lost out on being adequately warned," adds the SATCA.
Early this year, for instance, Malaysia's Star
newspaper carried a statement from BAT's Malaysian
operations dismissing pictorial warnings on cigarette
packets as "an emotional rather than a rational response
to the issue of consumer information and awareness".
Currently, Malaysia and Thailand have
anti-smoking policies that are closer to the region's
leader on this front, Singapore. This week, for
instance, Malaysian Health Minister Chua Jui Meng was
quoted in the state-run Bernama news agency saying that
people will soon have the power to "sue the tobacco
industry for ailments caused by tobacco products".
Kuala Lumpur also plans to make it compulsory to
have cigarette packets run graphic warnings on their
outer covers. The warnings should cover half the packet
and should also have "picture illustrations", the
minister added.
For its part, Thailand has
banned cigarette advertising, cracked down on tobacco
companies distributing free cigarettes in promotional
drives, stopped sponsorship and put a halt to brand
stretching, where tobacco giants place their product
names on non-tobacco items to gain visibility. Public
health officials here have also pushed ahead with plans
to place pictorial warnings on cigarettes, but are
awaiting approval from the minister of public health.
"It has been proved in Canada that pictorial
warnings work. These graphics will also hit people who
are illiterate or cannot read the language the warning
appears in," said Dr Hatai Chitanondh, president of the
Institute for Thai Health Promotion. "After all, they
say that a picture is worth more than a thousand words."
According to Bjorn Melgaard of the WHO, any
effort to combat the spread of smoking in the region is
welcome, because tobacco consumption is going to
increase the disease burden in 20 years' time. "The
public health systems will have to cope with increased
cases of lung cancer and other tobacco-related
diseases," he said.
The WHO's campaign to secure
international support behind the FCTC stemmed from
growing awareness that tobacco consumption had become a
global killer. There are some 4.9 million
tobacco-related deaths every year, the WHO states,
adding further that "no other consumer product is as
dangerous, or kills as many people".
East Asia,
according to the WHO, has already gained notoriety as
having the "second-highest annual per capita growth
rate" of tobacco consumption. Currently, there are an
estimated 1.1 billion smokers across the world.
(Inter Press Service)
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