Tuesday, February 23 1999
Thank you David for accepting our rendez-vous. May I first ask you to introduce yourself?
I have been in tobacco control for very nearly twenty years now. 11,5 years I was running ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) in the UK.
This organization had been set up by the Royal College of Physicians in 1971 after its second report on tobacco.
Its first report, in 1962, was the first from a medical authority that alerted the world about the dangers of tobacco, before the first report of the US surgeon general in 64.
During my time at ASH I undertook several missions in developing countries for UICC and WHO.
People already understood the tobacco problem but they did not know what to do about it. So we came from foreign countries and we explained what we knew, how to fight the industry.
Everyone would be very enthusiastic and supportive but as soon as we went home, nothing, everything went dead for them.
So I realized that what they most needed was commumication to keep up to date with the science, the politics, the strategies used by the industry, information that people in developed countries took for granted.
That is why I decided to set up IATH (International Agency on Tobacco and Health) with the financial support of two british charities (cancer and heart).
This is a small outlet whose sole mission is to inform our colleagues in developing countries.
1. When was that?
February 1991. So I have been going only 8 years.
We currently serve 182 people and organizations (we call them
"contacts") in 106 countries, almost all developing countries or those of central and eastern Europe.
Each month we send them a very detailed bulletin and we also send them at least one other piece of information, very often developed by colleagues in other countries.
We also give them ad hoc service.
If for example the tobacco industry in country X has just pulled some new trick, our contact there may call us, email or fax or whatever and say "help": this is happened, the health ministry believes these guys, how do we explain this is a pack of lies, what do we do?
And we respond as fast as we can, to try to help.
Sometimes we use Globalink to help those (the vast majority of our contacts) who do not yet have access.
2. How big an operation are you?
It's a very small organization. It is less thant 3 people full time. It's me full time, one research assistant half time and one general assistant 4 days a week.
Of course we could do more with more money and I am hopeful that with the big interest growing up in the United states about international tobacco control we can increase the funding for the real needs, which is not my office so much as my clients in the developing countries.
3. Is the internet changing the way you work?
When I started American foundations said "This is crazy because in one year's time everybody will have a computer even in developing countries."
This is nonsense.
But I do now believe the time has come to have more tobacco control advocates in developing countries hooked up in some way to email, to use Globalink and so on.
As a member of the board of Globalink I have always been promoting Globalink but I equally recognized the limitations.
Even if we gave a computer to some of our contacts in some developing countries, let us say in Africa, it could be stolen or the boss would say "that belongs in my office, it does not belong down here at your level" or something else will happen or they won¥t have access...
Having said that, there will still be many who deserve to link up to email who could do it if we could give them the capital costs or even send them a machine and give them some training.
When we did a survey amongst our clients last year, 80% did not have email and 90% did not have access to the web. So I am sure we can improve on that.
In the next year or two our mission is to raise the money to supply that need as much as possible and to turn our means of communication away more from the printed word and into the electronic age.
4. I am a big fan of your newsletter and I wish it could be available on line because I feel it could also be very useful for all the activists already on Globalink, even in the industrialized countries as a tool to raise their awareness of what¥s going on. Do you have any plans for going on line?
I have been reluctant to add to my mailing list subscribers from the industrialized countries.
But actually what I realize is we are doing a service they need.
We are digesting so much information into quite a little space that itself is valuable even when you are in the industrialized world.
I just agreed today with Ruben Israel that we'll place the text of our newsletter on Globalink, starting next month.
5. That's a very good news and I am very happy to welcome you on
Globalink. I am sure you'll find there many new readers and supporters.
What about the Las Palmas conference you are attending now. What is your impression?
I am excited to see that so many developing countries are represented but I have been a little frustrated with the difficulty to get in touch with them.
The organizers have not yet agreed to share their list of names and addresses with me, but I hope we'll find a solution.
As usual the most important is the work you do outside the formal sessions, the networking.
What you feel like adding:
I attended last year an advocacy conference in California and I was appalled how few of the participants had even heard of the magazine Tobacco Control despite the fact that our editor was american (Ron Davis) and extremely active in promoting the journal as much as he could.
I think this Tobacco Control journal is a brilliant resource (though maybe, as News Analysis Editor of it I am biased!).
I use it a lot in my contacts with the press.
I would like this journal to become better known around the world.
I am very excited by the fact there are a growing number of institutions and individuals in the US who are genuinely, for the right reasons, concerned about international tobacco control.
They feel guilty as decent people do that their companies
-and british companies by the way (*)- are exploiting developing countries.
They want to do something.
Some institutions could want to join for the wrong reason, to look good, and I am worried they will throw millions of dollars in the wrong directions that would benefit designers, printers, PR people in the US but be of little benefit for the people in the developing countries.
But others I am sure will do good work.
We have to work out policies about where the money goes and how it is spent so that real people at the grass roots level get help.
I am excited by the American Cancer Society's plans for the Chicago conference, providing help and training for delegates from developing countries.
This is an exciting time. There is an increasing number of good people joining the fight.
The last thing I want to say is on the legal side.
I don't even begin to realize the significance of the industry documents some of which are lying in the UK, close to where I live.
I am pleased WHO is sending a team there, that the american lawyers are coming back, some people of ASH have already been taking a look.
We may have some beautiful ammunition especially because BAT is so active in developing countries.
So we may find things to help our colleagues there.
Thank you David for taking the time to be with us today.
(*) and also French companies by the way (note of the Editor)
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