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Clarity Sibanda, CNS Correspondent, Zimbabwe The International Cancer Day 2017 (4th February) comes at a time when the death rate due to the disease is increasing, notwithstanding the research going on to diagnose and cure more people. Several progressive governments are calling for nicotine tar lovers to quit smoking, which accounts for more than 20% of all cancer deaths worldwide. Tobacco use increases the risk of at least 14 types of cancers: lung, larynx, oesophagus, mouth, bladder, stomach, bowel among others. Approximately 47% of cancer cases and 55% of cancer deaths occur in low and middle-income countries and, according to health experts, by 2030 these countries are expected to bear the brunt of an estimated 21.4 million new cancer cases per year, accounting for 60-70% of the global cancer burden. Research has found that tobacco use is the single biggest avoidable cause of cancer globally. Although nicotine is addictive, assistance with cessation is vital for many who want to q...

Aarti Dhar, CNS Correspondent, India (First published in theindiasaga.com ) The tobacco industry and its products, which have a deadly impact on people’s lives, cost the world’s economies more than US$ 1 trillion annually in healthcare expenditures and lost productivity, according to findings published in ‘The Economies of Tobacco and Tobacco Control.’ Around 6 million people die annually as a result of tobacco use, with most of them living in developing countries. Policies to control tobacco use, including tobacco tax and price increases, can generate significant government revenues for health and development work, according to this new landmark global report from WHO and the National Cancer Institute of the United States of America . Such measures can also greatly reduce tobacco use and protect people’s health from the world’s leading killers, such as cancers and heart disease. The almost 700-page monograph examines existing evidence on two broad areas of the economics of tobacco ...

Shobha Shukla, Citizen News Service - CNS [ Read presentation of Prof Jeff Collin ] Governments of over 180 countries that have ratified the global tobacco treaty had met recently earlier this month and adopted and advanced strong measures to stop tobacco industry interference in health policy and also to hold tobacco industry liable.The meeting formally called the Seventh Conference of the Parties to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) concluded with commendable progress on WHO FCTC Articles 5.3 and 19 (liability). In this context, I find it pertinent to share some of the learnings from the 47th Union World Conference on Lung Health that was held in Liverpool last month. Reality check on policy coherence Dr Jeff Collin , Professor of Global Health Policy at the University of Edinburgh, gave some interesting insights by exploring the dark nexus between industry and public health policies; and raised the issue of tackling conflict of interes...

Shobha Shukla, Citizen News Service - CNS [ Click here to listen or download this podcast ] So said Dr Tara Singh Bam , Regional Advisor for Tobacco Control at the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) on the sidelines of the 47th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Liverpool, UK. While reflecting upon the game changing successes in the field of tobacco control, he called for broader partnerships among different public health programmes for accelerating progress in implementing effective tobacco control. He repeatedly insisted upon the importance of working together. “We can no longer work in isolation. We have to work together. We cannot achieve our desired goals if there are vertical programmes alone. People working for TB control, tobacco control, and control of non communicable diseases (NCD) will have to work together with a holistic approach for the common good. It is the need of the hour to integrate all public health programmes to fight...

With a week left for inter-governmental meeting of global tobacco treaty (formally called World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control or WHO FCTC), more than 120 civil society organisations from India and several other nations globally have endorsed a letter calling upon the governments (that are Parties to the WHO FCTC) to act against the tobacco industry interference in FCTC. We are reproducing this letter below: “ Dated: 1st November 2016 To The Parties to the WHO FCTC Cc: Dr. Vera Luiza Da Costa e Silva, Framework Convention Secretariat JP Nadda, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Government of India Amal Pusp, Director of National Tobacco Control Programme Dear Parties to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC): As civil society organizations concerned with public health, we write to express our concern over tobacco industry interference in the meetings of the WHO FCTC and its subsidiary bodies. In advance o...

Aarti Dhar, CNS Correspondent, India [First published in India Saga on 20th October 2016] Representatives of close to 179 countries will meet next month for the seventh session of the Conference of the Parties of the global tobacco treaty to take some of the most powerful steps in tobacco control since the World Health Organization treaty’s adoption. At the Conference, to be held at Greater Noida near India’s National Capital New Delhi from November 7 to 12, countries will advance a provision to hold the tobacco industry civilly and criminally liable for its abuses. The governments will also advance policies to exclude the industry from public health policy making at the international and national levels. This comes in the wake of revelations, earlier this year, about British American Tobacco (BAT) Company’s widespread allegations of bribery to civil servants and policy makers in East Africa to undermine public health policies. Litigation against Big Tobacco has compelled the industr...

Francis Okoye, CNS Correspondent, Nigeria Tobacco industry all over the world, is bringing death through its interference in health policies. Panelists at a webinar, recently organised by Citizen News Service on tobacco industry interference in WHO framework convention on tobacco control (FCTC) , said that tobacco industries have hijacked political and legislative processes, exaggerated the economic importance of tobacco industry, and manipulated public opinion to gain an appearance of respectability. It has been fabricating support through its various front groups (like the international tobacco growers Association ITGA), discrediting proven science and intimidating governments  with litigation or threat of litigation. Speaking on the matter Maitri Porecha , a noted journalist, said that tobacco industry interference is not new. We need to firewall health and development policies from the industry’s unrelenting onslaught . One thing is clear— public health is not on the tobacco in...

This is the audio recording of an exclusive webinar on 4th October 2016 on a critically important issue of: tobacco industry interference in the global tobacco treaty (formally called WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control or FCTC). Click here to listen to this audio podcast . Thanks.

[ Watch webinar recording ] [ Listen to audio podcast ] We welcome you to register for an exclusive media webinar on the critically important issue of: t obacco industry interference in the global tobacco treaty (formally called WHO Frame w ork Convention on Tobacco Control or FCTC).  [ Watch webinar recording ] [ Lis ten t o podcast ] S eventh Session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO FCTC will be taking place in Gre ater Noida , India during 7-12 November 2016.  Tobac co industry interferen ce in health p olic y making is not new . Despite adoption of WHO FCTC Article 5. 3 G uidelines by our governments in November 2008 , the first Guid ing Principles of which is : " There is a fundamental and irreconcilable conflict between the tobacco industry ' s interests and public health policy interests", tobacco industry continues to find deceptive and insidious ways to water down or delay or jeopardize health policy making.  Panel of e xpe rts on this webinar w...