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GOVERNMENTS around the world are not doing enough to
protect their citizens from the dangers of smoking,
according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report.
The Report on the Global Tobacco
Epidemic 2008 is the first in a series of WHO reports
that will track the status of the tobacco epidemic and
the impact of interventions implemented to stop it.
The report stated that if governments
fail to act now, there will be 1 billion people dead due
to smoking this century. By 2030 there will be more than
8 million tobacco-related deaths a year, and 80 percent
of these deaths will be in developing countries like the
Philippines.
In the 20th century, the report said
around 100 million deaths were recorded as
tobacco-related. Currently, there are 5.4 million
tobacco-related deaths a year.
“Unless urgent action is taken, more
than 1 billion people could be killed by tobacco during
this century. But this dire future can be changed by the
leaders of governments and civil society. As the tobacco
epidemic is entirely man-made, the end of the tobacco
epidemic must also be man-made. We must act now,” the
WHO said in the report.
The report showed that while the
Philippines is not among the top 10 countries where most
of the world’s smokers live, around 15.9 percent of
Filipino youth or those aged 13 to 15 years old smoke;
while 34.7 percent of Filipino adults, or those aged 18
years old and above, smoke, with 23.6 percent of them
smoke everyday.
To combat the tobacco epidemic, WHO has
introduced the “MPOWER” package of six proven policies.
The acronym stands for: monitor tobacco use and
prevention policies; protect people from tobacco smoke;
offer help to quit tobacco use; warn about the dangers
of tobacco; enforce bans on tobacco advertising,
promotion and sponsorship; and raise taxes on tobacco.
However, in the Philippines, cigarettes
are relatively affordable. The top brand, according to
the report, only cost P25 a pack and it only takes 9
percent of the annual per capita income to buy 100
packs. The taxes imposed on tobacco products are also
low and are less than 50 percent of its retail price.
In terms of enforcing an advertising ban
on tobacco products, the WHO said out of a perfect score
of 10, the country only scored 5. According to the
report, the Philippines has yet to impose a ban on
tobacco advertisements in international magazines and
newspapers, on point of sale ads, on free distribution
marketing, and on promotional discounts.
The country also got the same
enforcement score for maintaining smoke-free
environments. The WHO said the country must still
enforce “no smoking” in indoor offices, restaurants, and
pubs and bars.
The WHO also found Philippine government
efforts lacking in terms of implementing laws and
regulations banning misleading terms— resulting in only
30 percent of principal display areas having tobacco
warnings, particularly those which include picture
warnings.
The report also showed that while
nicotine replacement therapies are sold in the country,
there is a lack of counselling services being provided
in health clinics, hospitals, offices of health
professionals, and the community.
The report also showed the country only
spends P500,000 on tobacco control efforts despite the
fact that tobacco prevention funding is already included
in specific national government objectives and has a
national agency or technical unit for tobacco control.
“All tobacco-control measures require
political commitment. Because the tobacco industry is
far better funded and more politically powerful than
those who advocate to protect children and nonsmokers
from tobacco and to help tobacco users quit, much more
needs to be done by every country to reverse the tobacco
epidemic. By taking action to implement the MPOWER
policies, governments and civil society can create the
enabling environment necessary to help people quit
tobacco use,” the WHO report stated.
The report added that two-thirds of the
world’s smokers live in 10 countries: China, India,
Indonesia, the Russian Federation, the United States,
Japan, Brazil, Bangladesh, Germany and Turkey.
The WHO said governments around the
world collect more than $200 billion in tobacco taxes
each year but spend less than one fifth of 1 percent of
that amount on tobacco control.
This results in the costs of tobacco
control interventions—taxation, smoke-free public
places, advertising, promotion and sponsorship plans and
graphic pack warnings—being very low. |
