NGOs go all out in war on tobacco
Tobacco kills 560 people every hour or 13,400 people per day or 4.9 million people per year, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates. So, how do antitobacco activists fight the industry whose consumer products "kill when used exactly as intended" and who have billions of dollars at their disposal to ensnare more smokers?
They formed alliances and resorted to various creative counterstrikes in facing the big fight with the likes of tobacco firms in the United States, Germany and Japan. On the sidelines of the last negotiations on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which would be the first global antismoking treaty, the activists issued a bulletin that gave out a Dirty Ashtray Award and an Orchid Award to those seen as either hampering or facilitating progress.
One Dirty Ashtray, for instance, went from the Framework Convention Alliance (FCA) to Germany and the U.S. "for using their constitutions to inflict tobacco advertising on the rest of the world", while an orchid went to Ireland, "for voicing other European countries' support of a complete advertising ban, despite the German veto on a total advertising ban". The alliance also called Japan "a strong contender for world title of Public Health Enemy No. 1".
The Network for Accountability of Tobacco International (NATT) gave out a Marlboro Man Award to Japan for voicing opposition to efforts to cut tobacco consumption even before the treaty talks began. This alliance also gave the same award to British American Tobacco for "the industry's underhanded tactics to derail the treaty", according to activist Kathryn Mulvey.
"With a history of lies and deceit, and evidence of lobbying, payoffs and public relations to undermine national and global health policies, BAT, Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco have disqualified themselves from a role in public policy."
The activists also unveiled in the conference venue, in a solemn ceremony conducted in several languages, a "Tobacco Death Clock" that measured the worldwide deaths (approximately 12 million people) from tobacco since negotiations began in October 1999. Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of the WHO, said that the annual death toll from tobacco had increased dramatically since the beginning of the discussions of the treaty.
"How many more of our loved ones must die before strong action is taken to reduce this unnecessary death toll?" said an activist who, together with dozens of others, worked long hours to prepare the bulletins, prepared and distributed displays at the conference venue.
How successful was the activists' bid?
Dr. Anhari of the Indonesian Ministry of Health revealed that two camps in the negotiations -- those in support of a strong treaty, and those against it -- remained polarized up to the end. Those in favor of a treaty that would effectively ban all cigarette advertising, for instance, have also managed to "iron out" differences with regards to six subjects including the question whether it would be necessary to establish a global fund to compensate farmers affected by a hoped-for decline in production.
The overall war scene, however, remains the same.
What about Indonesia, where cigarette consumption is rising faster than anywhere else in the world, contributing to almost 7 percent of the world's 1.1 billion smokers? Where 45 percent of all male smokers and 25 percent of all female smokers began smoking before they turned 20?
A landmark lawsuit was brought earlier this year by a group of antitobacco NGOs against nine corporations for violating regulations on tobacco advertising, including HM Sampoerna Tbk, PT Djarum Kudus Tbk, PT Prada Suara Production, PT Citra Lintas Indonesia, PT Metro Perdana Indonesia Advertising, PT Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia, PT Surya Citra Televisi, PT Jurnalindo Aksara Grafika, and PT Era Media Informasi.
Citing violations to the consumers' protection law, Tulus Abadi, the coordinator of the five NGOs that include the Indonesian Heart Foundation, demanded Rp 500 billion from the corporations to finance health promotion activities.
Sampoerna's chief lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea asked the judges to turn down the suit, pointing out at what he believed were administrative errors on the part of the plaintiff when filing in their suit.
"A violation conducted by PT Djarum Kudus is its individual responsibility which does not have anything to do with the allegation targeted at Sampoerna -- there was no reason whatsoever to lump the companies together in one lawsuit," Hutapea was quoted by Kompas as saying.
A blow to the Indonesian activists' bid, indeed. -- Santi W.E. Soekanto