All-out War Being Waged on Tobacco

Source from:  nationnews.com 7/28/08 07/29/2008

AT ALMOST the same time Barbadians were hearing that a project officer, Wayne Hunte, had been appointed through a grant from the Bloomberg Global Initiative in partnership with four non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to keep an eye on package warnings on tobacco products sold in CARICOM countries, the world was being told of an even more significant development. Two billionaires, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, were pooling their resources to fight against the smoking of tobacco. Through their combined effort, US$375 million will be poured into a global campaign to fight the scourge. It is estimated that there are one billion smokers worldwide with the majority of these in developing countries. Bloomberg is putting up US$250 million and Gates US$125 million to back projects to raise taxes on tobacco, help smokers quit, ban tobacco advertising and protect non-smokers from exposure to tobacco smoke. It took years of controversy before manufacturers of tobacco products were willing to admit that tobacco posed serious health problems after their own investigations and research had proven this to be so, but the findings had been deliberately withheld from the public. It was mainly through research done in developed countries, like the United States, that tobacco was given the thumbs-down. But when action was taken against tobacco products in these countries, tobacco product manufacturers focused on the market in developing countries which showed less sophistication. Significant at the time and even now is that with all the indications about the dangers posed by smoking, tobacco growing was not banned. Apparently it was felt that a warning placed on tobacco products is enough. It will be the job of Hunte to ensure tobacco products, particularly in Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, carry the appropriate warnings about tobacco being dangerous to health. Four NGOs – the Heart Foundation of Jamaica, the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Barbados, the Trinidad & Tobago Cancer Society and the Guyana Chest Society – are all partners in the Bloomberg-funded two-year project. Hunte summed up his task as eventually getting the governments in targeted countries to speak with one voice about putting warnings on tobacco products. It will be interesting to see if and how the Bloomberg-Gates anti-smoking campaign will reach us and how effective it might be. The campaign is not the same as what Hunte's project is about. A first step in this direction is to ban smoking in public places and calls have been growing for this throughout the world. Cigarette smoking is not illegal but the health dangers it poses are enough to attract the attention of the four Caribbean NGOs sponsoring Hunte's project and that should tell us something. Enditem