Smoking control concern
Source: Xinhua |
May 31, 2011, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA can use the state monopoly to prevent the tobacco industry from interfering in tobacco control policy in a country where more than 1 million people die of smoking-related illness each year, a World Health Organization official said yesterday.
"China's tobacco industry is 100 percent state-owned. And this offers a tremendous opportunity for the government to bring it under control," Dr Sarah England, a Beijing-based WHO tobacco control official, said on the eve of today's World No Tobacco Day.
China is the world's largest cigarette producer and consumer. There are about 300 million smokers in the country and nearly 60 percent of Chinese men smoke.
China ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003, pledging strong measures to curb tobacco consumption. But the treaty's implementation is in the hands of a multi-agency work group that includes the State Tobacco Monopoly, the regulatory body that shares the same management as the China Tobacco Corporation.
The corporation is the world's largest cigarette maker. Industry figures show that about 2,290 billion cigarettes were sold in China in 2009, up 40 percent from 2002.
"The tobacco industry is acting against the principles of public health, and the WHO guidelines make clear the tobacco industry should have no influence on tobacco control policy," Dr England said, adding that the state monopoly is actually an advantage for the government as it can control the industry's actions and involvement in policymaking.
She said Thailand has a similar state monopoly, but its government manages to firewall the government-owned tobacco industry from control policy setting.
"China can look to examples where there is a separation of these functions and consider whether a similar arrangement of firewalling is workable," she said.
Calls to kick tobacco industry representatives out of the multi-agency work group in charge of implementing the WHO treaty have been mounting in the health sector for some time.
A report whose lead authors include a deputy head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in January that the fundamental reason China had achieved limited progress in tobacco control was because tobacco industry representatives interfere with the drafting and enforcement of tobacco control policies.
The WHO says it considers the biggest barrier to enactment and enforcement of national laws that are consistent with the WHO framework is interference of the tobacco industry in public health policy-making.
It calls for vigilance and concerted action by governments, individuals and communities to stop the interference and enable full implementation of the treaty.
The tobacco industry currently generates about 7 percent of the Chinese government's annual revenue. But health experts argue that is overshadowed by lost productivity and medical costs.
"China's tobacco industry is 100 percent state-owned. And this offers a tremendous opportunity for the government to bring it under control," Dr Sarah England, a Beijing-based WHO tobacco control official, said on the eve of today's World No Tobacco Day.
China is the world's largest cigarette producer and consumer. There are about 300 million smokers in the country and nearly 60 percent of Chinese men smoke.
China ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003, pledging strong measures to curb tobacco consumption. But the treaty's implementation is in the hands of a multi-agency work group that includes the State Tobacco Monopoly, the regulatory body that shares the same management as the China Tobacco Corporation.
The corporation is the world's largest cigarette maker. Industry figures show that about 2,290 billion cigarettes were sold in China in 2009, up 40 percent from 2002.
"The tobacco industry is acting against the principles of public health, and the WHO guidelines make clear the tobacco industry should have no influence on tobacco control policy," Dr England said, adding that the state monopoly is actually an advantage for the government as it can control the industry's actions and involvement in policymaking.
She said Thailand has a similar state monopoly, but its government manages to firewall the government-owned tobacco industry from control policy setting.
"China can look to examples where there is a separation of these functions and consider whether a similar arrangement of firewalling is workable," she said.
Calls to kick tobacco industry representatives out of the multi-agency work group in charge of implementing the WHO treaty have been mounting in the health sector for some time.
A report whose lead authors include a deputy head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in January that the fundamental reason China had achieved limited progress in tobacco control was because tobacco industry representatives interfere with the drafting and enforcement of tobacco control policies.
The WHO says it considers the biggest barrier to enactment and enforcement of national laws that are consistent with the WHO framework is interference of the tobacco industry in public health policy-making.
It calls for vigilance and concerted action by governments, individuals and communities to stop the interference and enable full implementation of the treaty.
The tobacco industry currently generates about 7 percent of the Chinese government's annual revenue. But health experts argue that is overshadowed by lost productivity and medical costs.
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