Washington, D.C., 5 June 2013 (PAHO/WHO) – Tobacco consumption increases the risk of death of people who have high blood pressure. Within the framework of World No Tobacco Day, held every 31 May, the Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) urges total bans on tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship in the Americas to help reduce tobacco consumption, and calls for further efforts toward blood pressure control.

In the Americas, 30% of the population over the age of 18 suffers from hypertension, and 21% of those over the age of 15 are smokers. Combined, these two risk factors increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, which is responsible for 30% of all deaths in the Americas.

“Many of the risks of hypertension can be reduced by controlling blood pressure. If smoking cessation is also pursued, the risk of cardiovascular disease can be reduced even further”, noted Adriana Blanco, PAHO/WHO’s regional tobacco control advisor.

Smoking is responsible for 16% of all deaths of people over the age of 30 in the Americas, which corresponds to 1 million deaths each year. Alongside Europe, the region has the highest percentage of deaths attributable to tobacco—12% above the global average.

“It is essential that countries implement all measures contained in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. This year, we are stressing one such measure in particular: a total ban on tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship, which is one of the most effective ways to reduce consumption of tobacco,” said Blanco. To date, only five countries in the Americas have implemented such measures: Panama (2008), Colombia (2009), Brazil (2011, but regulations are pending), Chile (2013), and Suriname (in June 2013). Others have broad restrictions, and the rest have minimal or no restrictions at all.

High blood pressure, in turn, increases the risk of myocardial infarction, stroke, and chronic kidney failure. In the Americas, cardiovascular diseases cause 1.9 million deaths each year and are the leading cause of death in the majority of the countries of the region.

“Tobacco and hypertension make for a lethal combination. Tobacco cessation contributes to a significant reduction in the number of deaths from heart attack and stroke”, said Pedro Ordúñez, PAHO/WHO advisor on noncommunicable diseases.

“People who are diagnosed with hypertension can be treated and controlled long-term, which significantly improves the likelihood of a long, healthy, and productive life”, added Ordúñez. “Everyone has a role to play in helping prevent and control this disease. Measures that help reduce tobacco consumption are also measures that help reduce and control high pressure”, he stressed.

In addition to avoiding tobacco consumption, hypertension can also be prevented by eating less salt (particularly in processed foods), following a balanced and healthy diet, engaging in physical activity regularly, and avoiding harmful alcohol consumption.

This year’s World Health Day—which is held every 7 April—was dedicated to the risks of hypertension. PAHO/WHO issued a call for people to know their blood pressure numbers and adopt measures to prevent and control hypertension.

LINKS:

• ·         World No Tobacco Day 2013 (PAHO)
• ·         World Health Day—Hypertension (PAHO) 
• ·         http://www.paho.org
• ·         http:/www.facebook.com/PAHOWHO
• ·         http:/www.youtube.com/pahopin
• ·         http://twitter.com/pahoeoc
• ·         http://twitter.com/pahowho
• ·         http://twitter.com/opsoms

John Seffrin, chief executive of the American Cancer Society, issued this warning while speaking at a high-level forum of the world’s 100 leading cancer experts gathered in the Swiss resort of Lugano.

They said governments must do far more than they have done to control the global tobacco industry, either by raising cigarette prices dramatically, outlawing tobacco marketing or by taxing the multinational profits of the big cigarette firms.

According to scientists, smoking kills more than half of all smokers, mostly from cancer, and yet despite it being the single biggest avoidable risk of premature death, there are about 30 million new smokers a year.

They said that if the current trends continue – with cigarette companies targeting the non-smoking populations of the developing world – then hundreds of millions of people will be dying of cancer in the second half of this century.

Some of the experts attending the World Oncology Forum went further by calling for an outright ban on cigarettes and for the tobacco industry to be treated as a terrorist movement for the way it targets new markets with a product that it knows to be deadly when used as intended.

“We have a major global industry producing a product that is lethal to at least half the people who use it. It will kill, if current trends continue, a billion people this century,” the Independentquoted Dr Seffrin as saying.

“It killed 100 million in the last century and we thought that was outrageous, but this will be the biggest public health disaster in the history of the world, bar none. It all could be avoided if we could prevent the terroristic tactics of the tobacco industry in marketing its products to children.

“There is a purposeful intent to market a product that they know full well will harm their customers and over time will kill more than half of them. The industry needs to be reined in and regulated,” he said.

Worldwide, tobacco causes about 22 percent of cancer deaths each year, killing some 1.7 million people, with almost 1 million of them dying from lung cancer. Yet the numbers of new smokers among the young is rising faster than the numbers giving up.

The latest study into the health effects of smoking, which was published in The Lancet and involved 1.3 million women, showed that tobacco is even more dangerous than previously supposed but the benefits of giving up smoking are greater than expected.

Sir Richard Peto of Oxford University, a co-author of the Million Women study who worked closely with Sir Richard Doll, is also the scientist who first calculated how many people this century will die from tobacco-induced cancers.

“We have about 30 million new smokers a year in the world. On present patterns, most of them are not going to stop, and if they don’t stop, and if half of them die from it, then that means more than 10 million a year will die – that’s 100 million a decade in the second half of the century,” Professor Peto said.

“So this century we’re going to see something like a billion deaths from smoking if we carry on as we are. In Europe we have about 1.3 million premature deaths per year now, of which about 0.3 million are deaths by tobacco. There’s nothing else as big as that.

“If you put all causes together, you wouldn’t get a total that’s half of that caused by tobacco, and tobacco kills more people by cancer than other diseases. Smoking is still the most important cause of cancer… If you smoke a few cigarettes a day, it will be the most dangerous thing you do,” he added

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Li, set to succeed Wen Jiabao as premier early next year, could boost his reputation as a populist leader and deflect criticism from rivals if his younger brother, Li Keming, is transferred from his position as deputy director at China’s State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, Cheng Li, a Brookings senior fellow, wrote in a report. He said Li Keming’s prominent role in the agency that runs the world’s biggest tobacco company may have set back efforts to control tobacco in the country.

Public opinion in China is becoming more important on social issues including health, environmental protection and food safety, Brookings’s Li said today. China has more than 300 million smokers, and at least 1.2 million die from smoking- related diseases each year, a figure set to rise to 2 million a year by 2020, according to the report, released two weeks before China begins a once-a-decade leadership transition.

“In all these areas, I think leaders should set examples,” Brookings’s Li said in an interview. “Particularly now that many countries, including Russia and India, are paying more attention to public health issues.”

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A packet of Winfield Blues is no longer the colour its name would suggest – instead a sickly looking olive green sets the ailing backdrop for photos of health-plagued smokers in various states of decay.

The new packets, which use the same font for any brand or type of cigarette, will be the only legal packaging available from December onwards.

Free Choice Tobacconist owner Robert Anderson said his Hooper Centre store had already sold most of its old, colourful stock.

If any old packets are still in circulation when December arrives, representatives from tobacco companies will buy them back from stockists.

He believed smokers would not take the decision lightly.

“I think the new packets are obscene, but that’s what the government wants,” he said.

“If they think it’s going to stop people from smoking cigarettes, they’ve got another think coming.

“It’s the worst thing they could do if they want the votes of the smoking public . . . another nail in the government’s coffin.”

Mr Anderson said he was not worried about any negative impact on his business.

He said it would only help sales of certain smoking accessories.

“The general public feeling is that it’s a fair dinkum joke,” he said.

“I think the sale of cigarette cases (to cover the disturbing images) will really come to the fore.”

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The tobacco directive is at the center of a cash-for-influence probe by the EU’s anti-fraud office which resulted in former Health Commissioner John Dalli stepping down last week. Mr. Dalli has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

“We will come with the draft revision of the directive in the coming weeks,” Mr. Bailly said. “The Commission will make this proposal. No doubt about that. So really the political commitment is there,” he added.

Any proposal would then have to go to member states and the European Parliament.

In a press conference in Brussels, in which he said he would take legal action against the Commission over what he called his ouster, Mr. Dalli repeated his concern that the directive would be blocked now that he has resigned.

He has also said that the directive was twice delayed internally by Commission officials.

Mr. Bailly declined to comment on who had delayed internal discussions, adding that the process would move ahead once a new commissioner had been appointed to replace Mr. Dalli.

Malta has put forward foreign minister Tonio Borg as a replacement. But he may not be confirmed for some weeks since there must be a hearing with the European Parliament before he is appointed.

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“With this joint action, we aim to help football fans all over Europe to retake control over their health and their lives, encouraging them to be as passionate and committed to their own health as they are to good football” explained Rosell

The European Commission (EC) and FC Barcelona today announce an unprecedented partnership. ‘Quit Smoking with Barça’ (quitsmokingwithbarca.eu) will harness the success of the European Commission’s “Ex-Smokers are Unstoppable” campaign and the support of Barça’s millions of fans to help 28 million European smokers* kick the habit forever.

Partnering one of the world’s most prestigious sports clubs and a European institution is an ambitious project never before tried on such a scale. ‘Quit Smoking with Barça’ is the latest and most audacious initiative of the award-winning “Ex-Smokers are Unstoppable” campaign, this is the first time that the European Commission has collaborated with a sporting partner that reaches the hearts of millions of people. The programme aims not to judge smokers, but instead underlines the many benefits of quitting smoking, combining these positive messages with the evidence-based tools of the “Ex-Smokers are Unstoppable” campaign. ‘Quit Smoking with Barça’ offers supporters of Barça, football and sport in general, a personalised health training programme with daily quit smoking tips and encouragement direct from the hearts and mouths of the club itself.

The campaign will be powered by iCoach (www.exsmokers.eu), a free, proven digital health tool already helping almost a quarter of a million people across Europe (equivalent to 1 in every 500 smokers) in their quest to give up smoking for good. iCoach is available from today as an app for both for iPhone and Android (www.exsmokers.eu/mobile).

“Through this collaboration we will seek to help football supporters across Europe to take back control of their health and their lives, encouraging them to be as passionate about their health as they are about the “beautiful game”,” said FC Barcelona President, Sandro Rosell speaking at the launch announcement at the European Commission Headquarters in Brussels.

Rosell continued, “We feel proud to be here today and to work side by side with the European Commission to improve the health of our supporters and all fans of football. At Barça we firmly believe in our slogan ‘more than a club’ and we promote values of respect, health and social commitment. Our fans and members have given us their unconditional support and dedication for 113 years, and it is our duty to look after their most important asset of all – their health. Barça understands how important teamwork is in overcoming challenges, so through the ‘Quit Smoking with Barça’ campaign we are going to be their teammate in helping them win their battle against cigarettes. We will offer them guidance, encouragement and practical help. I’m calling on all smokers to join this campaign.”

Speaking about the new alliance, John Dalli, European Commissioner for Health and Consumers says “I am delighted to work together with FC Barcelona to help Europeans keep away from smoking. The European Commission has a solid track record in raising awareness about smoking and in delivering successful tobacco control measures across the EU. Our “Ex-Smokers are Unstoppable” campaign is helping hundreds of thousands of men and women on their journey towards a smoke-free life, and this collaboration should help amplify our message. Using the universal language of football, we can support more Europeans in their efforts to quit smoking and becoming unstoppable ex-smokers for life.”

Dr. Jordi Monés, the director responsible for Barça’s medical area, and pioneer of the club’s previous smoking cessation initiative, ‘Barça Sense Fum’ (Smoke-Free Barça), which saw a smoking ban across all Barça facilities said “Barça feels very proud to collaborate with an institution like the European Commission. We wanted to join forces with the biggest public body in Europe to convince people to take the first step towards smoke-free living. Just as our fans support and cheer us to victory, through ‘Quit Smoking with Barça’ we will now support them through their toughest challenge -to quit smoking for good.”

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We have also seen increased demand in cessation support, in the form of a short intervention by a health care provider, counselling, or other treatment modality.

However, medical practitioners and tobacco cessation specialists express the concern:  “It is so difficult for a smoker in my country to have access to quitting support once they make the move to quit.” This is typically followed by “so they often give up and keep on smoking because it is cheaper for them in the short term.”

A number of global health governance tools and global advocacy opportunities can help secure resources for tobacco treatment at the local level.

The medical community can help advocate at the national and global levels.

This advocacy can create a global mechanism that will help secure resources for treatment and reach the objectives set by the UN Summit on Non Communicable Diseases.

Following the UN Summit in Sept 2011, the World Health Assembly adopted a global target calling for a 25% reduction in preventable deaths from NCDs by 2025.

Given tobacco is a leading risk factor for NCDs, this target can be achieved only if we address the tobacco epidemic through a number of interventions such as a ban on tobacco product advertising, tax and price measures to reduce smoking prevalence, smoke free policies and ensuring that smokers have access to treatment.

We expect that in September, a target will be approved demanding a 30% reduction in global smoking prevalence by 2015.

We need to use these targets in all of our advocacy efforts as we hold our governments accountable to these commitments.

The upcoming 5th Conference of the Parties (COP5) of the FCTC (November 2012) in Seoul, Korea, provides a unique opportunity to address the lack of resources for tobacco control, including resources for the treatment of tobacco dependence.

The meeting will provide more than 170 governments a platform to discuss and explore solutions to address the lack of resources for implementation of tobacco control measures.

It is crucial that governments agree at COP5 to set up a process that reviews the barriers countries face and develop solutions to address them.

The FCA proposes that governments move forward with the development of a working group that will review the implementation of the treaty, review mechanisms of assistance for implementation of the treaty, and identify implementation challenges as well as provide assistance to overcome them.

Another problem we face is that Non Communicable Diseases  (NCDs ) — which include Cardiovascular, Cancer and Chronic Lung Diseases, for which tobacco is the leading risk factor — are absent from the development agenda and global development goals such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

This has led to a lack of resources for treatment of tobacco addiction from the major development agencies such as USAID, CIDA, DFID and other major development donors.

The MDGs are up for review as they expire in 2015, and this process, along with the outcomes of the UN Summit on NCDs, provides a unique opportunity to address the lack of treatment resources.

Our strategy should be to move from a current over- dependence on philanthropic funding to development aid in countries that need it, followed by fiscal independence at the national level for tobacco control programs through taxation of tobacco products.

There are examples from other fields that could be applied to tobacco in the area of development and prevention of NCDs.

There is an interesting example from Sweden, where they are attempting to move from only addressing pathogenesis to addressing salutogenesis.

Sweden found it to be cost effective to implement interventions through the medical community that encourages sedentary individuals to change their behaviour and exercise.

When a patient visits a doctor, they are asked if they exercise, frequency, intensity etc…

If the patient says they do not exercise, then a referral is made to a motivational therapist, a personal trainer, etc…

Based on the success of these interventions, they developed a pilot program through the Swedish Development Agency, and funds were made available to start a similar project in Vietnam.

These types of programs could be developed for tobacco control by integrating cessation measures along with other tobacco control measures in the development agenda of donor agencies.

For this to happen, the medical community will need to advocate in both donor countries as well as low and middle countries.

The medical community can engage in these processes by staying attuned to the development of the FCTC COP campaigns.

You can do this by visiting the Framework Convention Alliance web site and by following the FCTC Action Now! campaign.

In a letter addressed to Elections Chairman Sixto Brillantes, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP), an umbrella organization of groups and individuals from medical and professional organizations, faith-based youth and environmental groups involved in upholding tobacco control laws, opposed the candidacy of the Agrarian Development Association (ADA) whose nominees are closely identified with the tobacco industry.

ADA, a party-list group representing farmers, was accredited by the Comelec but lost during the last sectoral election, is again vying to get a seat in the 2013 elections. The party-list law requires that 20 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives should comprise of marginalized groups.

A check on the Comelec web site reveals the following ADA nominees: Eric Singson, Eric Singson Jr., Rodolfo Salanga, Blake Clinton Dy, Grace Kristine Singson Meehan and Victor Manuel Jr.

“The four nominees of ADA belong to the affluent, the influential and the powerful by reason of their individual or familial wealth or the political and economic ties they have honed and developed through the years. They are neither marginalized nor underrepresented. They are rich people who use the poor, marginalized sector, in the hope of gaining a seat in Congress,” said FCAP in its letter to the poll body.

Eric Singson was the former representative of Ilocos Sur’s Second District, while his son, Eric Singson Jr., is the incumbent representative of the same district. Salanga is a longtime president of the Philippine Tobacco Institute (PTI), while Dy operates the Anglo-American Tobacco Corp.

FCAP reminded the Comelec that Section 2 of Republic 7941, or the Party-List System Act, requires nominees of sectoral parties to “belong to marginalized and underrepresented sectors, organizations and parties.”

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