ECL Blog

ECL Tobacco Control Campaign Workshop, 17 March, Brussels

A tobacco control campaign workshop will be led by Karen Gutierrez, Director of the Global Dialogue for Effective Stop Smoking Campaigns (http://www.stopsmokingcampaigns.org/). 

This workshop will take place in Brussels on 17 March, and agenda items include:

• an overview of international lessons related to prevention and cessation;
• introduction of  the Global Dialogue Campaign Development Tool Kit;
• strategic planning exercise; and
• exchange of concrete experiences from European cancer leagues.   

Travel by ECL participants are supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Pfizer.

Lessons from this workshop will be posted here.

Treaty Negotiations on Illicit Tobacco Trade to Start Next Week

What was considered as totally unrealistic ten years ago will happen next week: global tobacco control will start a new area of activity. On February 11, representatives from more than 150 countries will meet in Geneva to begin negotiations on an historic international treaty to combat the illicit trade in tobacco products. Our objective is to have a meaningful treaty to combat the illicit trade adopted in 2010.

A new treaty should include a comprehensive set of measures, both domestic and international, to tackle the illicit trade. Measures should include marking of tobacco products so they can be tracked and traced from manufacture to point of sale and illicit products, including counterfeit, can be identified. Licensing of participants within the supply chain would ensure they can be monitored effectively and risk losing their license if they are found to be dealing in illicit products. Measures should also include obligations on manufacturers to control the supply chain for their products, with serious financial penalties for those that fail to do so.  Enhanced law enforcement and international cooperative measures, such as cooperation in investigation and prosecution of offences, information sharing, mutual legal assistance and extradition arrangements would enhance the ability of governments to work effectively together to overcome the illicit trade.

If you want more information on the FCTC negotiations on illicit trade, you can visit the website of the FCA www.fctc.org.  click on illicit trade or INB1.

Deborah Arnott, Luk Joossens, Eduardo Bianco, Mary Assunta and Ahmed Ogwell will publish a commentary in the Lancet next Saturday called “Smuggling treaty could reduce tobacco toll” www.thelancet.com Vol. 371 February 9, 2008, 458-60.

Luk Joossens

Advocacy Officer, Association of European Cancer Leagues
Tobacco Control Manager, Belgian Foundation against Cancer
Senior Policy Advisor, Framework Convention Alliance
Strategic Leader Tobacco Control, International Union against Cancer

Ranking of 30 European Countries 2007

ECL was a co-organizer of the successful 4th European Conference on Tobacco or Health, which took place last week in Basel, Switzerland.   In case you missed it, the blog of this conference is here.

The report "Progress in Tobacco Control in 30 European Countries - 2005-2007" was launched by Luk Joossens there, and is now available on the ECL website.

RANKING 2007 - how did your favorite European country do?

Tobacco High on Agenda Next Week in Brussels

There are two events related to TC next week in Brussels - one at the European Parliament and the other at the European Commission.

MEPs against Cancer  is organizing a closed meeting next week on "Tobacco Control and the Use of Snus" at the European Parliament.  Discussion will be related to risks, evidence, and our own Luk Joossens will point out both sides of the coin to stimulate debate.  Snus is illegal in the European Union, with the exception of Sweden, so the bulk of the evidence being presented will be from Sweden.  This is certainly an interesting area to follow.  With more smoke-free legislations in place in Europe, the debate on snus use is just beginning.  So let us know, where do you stand on snus use?

DG SANCO (European Commission's Directorate responsible for Public Health) is having an Open Consultation meeting on 8 October 2007 at the Commission in Brussels.  They will be seeking feedback on the following topics to include in their next call for proposals, in relation to preparations for the 2008 Work Plan of the 2nd Programme of Community Action in the field of Health (2007-2013):

• Tobacco use presence in audiovisual media services and communications;
• Tobacco products liability; and
• Development of innovative strategies and best practices concerning prevention and cessation methods.

And if you cannot attend, they are also taking comments beforehand at [email protected].

Welcome

Welcome to the ECL-blog.