A group of 650 antismoking activists, along with 500 of their alliance members from Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Australia, slammed the ongoing TABINFO Asia conference in Bangkok of the tobacco industry and demanded that the government issue regulations to control officials from availing sponsorships from the industry.
"We will expose any bad tactic by the tobacco industry to develop its products and lure teenagers to become smokers," secretarygeneral of Action on Smoking and Health, Dr Prakit Vathesatogkit, said.TABINFO Asia is calling itself "one of the most important events held in one of the world's most important tobacco regions".
The conference, being held at the Impact Arena Exhibition Centre from today until Sunday, is not open to the public health community. However, it has said it will address topics that are of grave concern to public health.
Prakit said the tobacco industry was trying to buy a good public image for itself through corporate social responsibility.
The industry is keen to sponsor cultural and sports events, especially in schools, as they want to make teenagers feel that cigarette is just like other commodities.
A report by the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance said that education was being perceived as the gateway to a better future.
Handing out scholarships to students from poor families is another way to win public approval for the industry. Providing scholarships is also another means to secure the industry's position because it knows that the entire family of a student will feel indebted to it.
Hence, scholarships are given out under the tobacco company's foundation with much fanfare and publicity.
Tobacco companies also sponsored message boards, construction of basketball courts and provided meals in schools.
"We want to show that we oppose the tobacco industry's use of Thailand as its base to promote and extend its market, especially among teenagers and women in Asia and other parts of the world," Prakit said.
The network has collected signatures from 86,238 people who oppose the biggest event of the tobacco industry, and urge governments around the world to strictly implement the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHOFCTC), which is an important tool to protect public health.
This regulation enables government to enact legislation to regulate tobacco. The WHOFCTC Article 5.3 gives governments the right ammunition to keep the tobacco industry from delaying and diluting efforts to regulate tobacco.
Currently around 2.4 million people die of tobaccorelated deaths every year in Asia, and about 125 million of the adult population in the Asean region are already smokers. In Thailand alone, about 14 million adults are smokers.