FCTC: countries start drafting the guidelines for graphic health warnings

Some 150 delegates from the Philippines and 35 other countries are meeting beginning Wednesday to Friday (Nov. 7-9) at the World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Region office in Manila to draft the guidelines for putting these visual health warnings on the packages of tobacco products and other provisions of Article 11 of the global Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) of WHO.

Source : bayanihan.org

Gruesome pictures or pictograms of throat cancer, lung cancer and other ill effects on health of smoking will soon be placed prominently on all cigarette packs.

This as some 150 delegates from the Philippines and 35 other countries are meeting beginning Wednesday to Friday (Nov. 7-9) at the World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Region office in Manila to draft the guidelines for putting these visual health warnings on the packages of tobacco products and other provisions of Article 11 of the global Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) of WHO.

The Philippines, together with 35 countries, are signatories to the FCTC.

The pictograms of the harmful and deadly effects of smoking on cigarette packs also came as the Philippine government, through the Department of Health (DOH), goes high gear in its anti-smoking campaign to kick and eradicate the habit among the Filipinos, particularly the youth who according to a health official is now the target of tobacco manufacturers.

Based on the 2007 Global Youth Tobacco survey, there are now an estimated four million youth smokers aged 10 to 19 years in the Philippines while Filipino adult smokers aged 20 and older comprise 15.5 million.

It is expected that the frightening pictograms of health effects of tobacco products will discourage and deter the youth to initiate smoking and entice the adult smokers to quit the habit.

These pictograms are said to be more effective than the textual health warnings that is being presently implemented in the Philippines as mandated under Section 13 of R.A. 9211, or the Tobacco Regulation Act.

The FCTC meet in the Philippines is being hosted by DOH and WHO.

"This is a big leap and the country is honored to host this landmark event in our advocacy against the destructive habit of smoking," Philippine Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III said.

Duque said that under Article ii of the WHO-FCTC, signatory countries are committed to adopt and implement measures that will ensure that tobacco products, in its packaging and labeling, do not contain false, misleading, deceptive, or erroneous information.

The FCTC draft guidelines when finished, the Philippine health chief said, will be presented to the Conference of Parties (the governing body of the FCTC) at its third session to be convened in late 2008.

"If approved in its final form, all signatory countries will use the pictograms on all labeling and packaging of tobacco products," Duque said.

This even as several countries have already started to use pictograms of smoking health harmful effects such as Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Uruguay, Canada and Singapore.

It is said that cigarette packs with these pictograms being used in  Thailand are being manufactured in the Philippines.

The Philippine health department's anti-smoking campaign is further bolstered by the recent bill filed by Senate Committee on Health and Demography Chair Sen. Pia Cayetano pushing for stricter labeling requirements in cigarette packs sold locally and a review of Section 29 of R.A. 9211 requiring a representative from the tobacco industry to be a member of the Inter-Agency Committee (IAC) on Tobacco.

Cayetano questioned the apparent conflict of interest in the inclusion of a tobacco industry representative in the IAC which has the exclusive power and function to administer and implement the provisions of the said Philippine law.

The lady senator said it is highly questionable the inclusion of the tobacco industry representative in the IAC. "When you look at the IAC implementing the Milk Code the Milk Code (Executive Order 51), the milk companies are not represented," Cayetano said.

The neophyte senator also gives her full support to cigarette packs being marketed in the country to bear the pictograms to serve as clear message to the youth and other vulnerable groups.

As an amendment to RA 9211, Cayetano is likewise pushing for a change in the chairmanship of the IAC, from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to DOH, stressing that this is a health issue, not trade.

For their part, the FCTC Alliance Philippines, an advocacy group against smoking, expressed their support that only DOH to administer this law, commending DOH for its action.

Dr. Haik Nikogosian, head of secretariat, WHO Geneva, said that apart from the guidelines, WHO-FCTC is also addressing issues on elimination of illicit trade in tobacco products.

Those attending the three-day meet in the Philippines are delegates from Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cape Verde, China, Cook Islands, Djibouti, European Commission, Fiji, France, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Iran, Jamaica, Japan and Lesotho.

Other participants are from Malaysia, Mauritius, Namibia, Northern Ireland, Palau, Peru, Republic of Korea, Singapore, South Africa, Sudan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay and Vietnam.