THE World Health Organisation (WHO) has slammed major tobacco companies for continuing to market cigarettes to the world’s youth.
Speaking at an All Africa meeting on tobacco control in Pretoria, Derek Yach, WHO’s executive director for noncommunicable diseases and mental health, said companies regularly hired market researchers to ask adolescents about their buying and leisure time habits.
This was according to “Voice of Truth”, a recently released report on tobacco industry activities in the WHO’s eastern Mediterranean region.
“Marketing to youth is a deliberate global tactic and we know they have not stopped,” he said.
“The data they gather (is) fed into their media campaigns. The brands are marketed as a lifestyle to aspire to,” he said.
Yach said Africa, like other parts of the world, was not exempt from these campaigns.
He said the WHO’s Global Youth Tobacco Survey – completed in 30 countries – revealed an “alarming picture” of early addiction.
“In some areas of Poland, Zimbabwe and China, children as young as 10 are hooked on tobacco,” he said.
Yach cited calls from around the world to control the spread of smoking, including one from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) last year for tough action against tobacco smugglers.
“The DRC wanted WHO member countries to hand over tobacco smugglers to their country of origin and deny them any immunity, because they were trading in a poisonous product,” Yach said.
He said the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), currently being drafted, needed to enshrine a set of rules and standards for the sale and promotion of tobacco products, especially to the young.
“We know that total bans on tobacco advertising reduce consumption, as do a combination of other measures such as better access to quitting, smoke-free places and strong counter-advertising,” he said.
Yach praised South African efforts to halt the spread of smoking.
According to the latest South African Health Review, tobacco consumption in the country has fallen for eight consecutive years.
In 1998 and 1999 around 30bn cigarettes were released for consumption, down by 17% from 36bn released in 1993 and 1994.
The report said declines had been most significant among the poorest and youngest groups in the country. The next round of the talks on the FCTC is scheduled to take place in Geneva in April. – AFP
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