PM for package to deal with tobacco menace

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JAN. 7. The Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, today called for a comprehensive package to deal with the growing tobacco menace which posed a serious threat to public health.

Inaugurating a three-day International Conference on Global Tobacco Control Law, co-sponsored by the World Health Organisation and the Union Health Ministry, here, Mr. Vajpayee said ``if we do not conceive of tobacco control as a comprehensive package, our attempt may become self-defeating''.

Underlining the need to correlate the control strategies to the situation on the ground, he said legislative measures have a special place in such a method. But legislation alone cannot be effective. For a tobacco control law to be successful, it must be accompanied by alternative modes of income for those dependent on tobacco and the community at large has to be fully informed and involved.

Tobacco control must be seen to confer on the people the riches of good health while advancing the health of the economy, he said adding that if it has to succeed as a global mission, `` our commitment must be complete, action must be universal, strategies must be comprehensive and integrated and implementation must be phased and progressive.''

The Prime Minister said the perspective of the developing countries should be reflected in the global agenda for tobacco control and the situation warranted an international legislation governing use of all media, whether electronic or print, to promote the use of tobacco products particularly in view of the fact that in the wake of an open world economy, tobacco trade has become transnational.

Mr. Vajpayee said the trend of tobacco use in developed countries were different from those in the developing countries. Developing countries have been witnessing a steady decline in tobacco consumption. The result is that their production surplus have been aggressively seeking external markets. The developing countries, on the other hand, are experiencing rising tobacco consumption and shrinking export market.

These patterns, he said, were fraught with grave consequences for the health of current and future generation. The imperatives of public health action for tobacco control, therefore, cannot be denied or delayed, he emphasised.

Sounding a note of optimism, the Director General of WHO, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, said the good news is that ``we can buck and reverse the global tobacco trend for we know what works and how. Taxes work and the young are especially susceptible to increased prices. Advertising and sponsorship bans work. Smoke free policies work.''

Such policy interventions could, in sum, bring unprecedented health and economic benefits. The WHO's message is that there is a political solution to tobacco and it is routed through policy interventions, she said while dwelling at length with the dubious role of the tobacco industry and ill-effects of the use of tobacco in terms of fatalities, diseases and the cost of treatment.

While noting that the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is a pathfinder in public health, Dr. Brundtland said it would assist in placing health at the top of national and international agenda and would create a debate on the wider issues and solutions to health problems.

Others who spoke at the inaugural function after the traditional lighting of the lamp included the Union Law Minister, Mr. Ram Jethmalani, the Union Minister of State for Health, Mr. N. T. Shanmugam, the Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region, and the Union Health Secretary, Mr. Javed. A. Chaudhary.

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