Tobacco control meet to be held here
The World Health Organisation and Thailand will co-host an international conference on tobacco control and are expected to come up with transnational legal controls and identify technology to fight cross-border tobacco advertising and the illicit cigarette trade.
About 1,000 anti-smoking advocates from more than 140 countries are expected to attend the 2nd WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) conference to be held in the UN building in Bangkok at the end of June. "This is the first time the WHO will hold this type of conference outside Geneva," said Dr Hatai Chitanond, who chaired the academic committee. The first conference was held last year in Geneva. The FCTC was adopted unanimously by the 56th World Health Assembly on May 21, 2003. It became the world's first international public health treaty when it came into force on February 27, 2005. The treaty has been signed by 168 countries and is legally binding in 142 ratifying countries representing 2.3 billion people. The purpose of the treaty is to set broad limits on the production, sale, distribution, promotion and taxation of tobacco as well as government policies. The main focus of the conference will be to stop cross-border tobacco advertising and the illicit trade of cigarettes, said Hatai. During the seven-day meeting, experts, both government and non-government, will discuss the proposal to outlaw cross-border tobacco adverts and adopt technology to fight the illicit cigarette trade, he said. When approved, both the anti-tobacco proposal and the technology to implement it will be adopted by more than 140 countries, said Hatai. Cross-border tobacco advertising is a major threat to the international effort to control tobacco because it remains widespread due to legal loopholes in many countries, including Thailand, the doctor said. Such advertising normally came with satellite television signals and imported print media, which had yet to be covered by Thai law, despite the existence of printing technology to make a tobacco-free edition. Some magazines used this technology to edit out tobacco adverts from the editions to be distributed to countries with sufficient legal controls over such advertising, said Hatai. An effective technology to make authorised cigarettes distinguishable from smuggled ones, would be part of the measure to fight the illicit trade of cigarettes, he said. Arthit Khwankhom The Nation
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