Saturday April 17, 1999
Thank you Cornel for accepting our " rendez-vous ". May I ask you to introduce yourself?
My name is Cornel Radu-Loghin; I am 32 years old, married, with two boys (Victor, 5, and Vlad, 2 years). I graduated in computer sciences from the Polytechnic University of Bucharest. In 1995 I was trained for non-governmental organization management, funding and public relations by World Learning that is an American organization, part of USAID.
I started my activity in tobacco control in 1994, when I created the first NGO for nonsmokers rights in Romania: Fresh Air Romania.
I had the idea after reading one small announcement in a Romanian newspaper published by Dr. Lisette Stembor from Den Haag, Holland. She was trying to find in Romania people interested in the defense of nonsmoker's rights. Within a year Fresh Air Romania was born. In august 1995 we joined the European Union of Nonsmokers; we were the first organization from Eastern Europe to join this association.
In 1996 I began to participate in GLOBALINK and INGCAT. This same year we also held a meeting with WHO (Prof. Gerard Dubois, Barbara Zolty, Peter Anderson, Heather Selin attended for WHO).
In July 1997 I organized in IASI the first annual General assembly of the European Union of Nonsmokers taking place in an East European country.
This meeting was the first public event organized by nonsmoker's rights activists in Romania.
In august 1997 USA TODAY presented my activities in a cover story (This can be read at http:www.globalink.org/gtm/uen-ro ).
With CDC Atlanta financial help I participated in the World Conference in Beijing.
Thanks to the Health promotion Foundation, especially to Prof. Witold Zatonski and Scott Thompson I attended the 2d European Conference in Las Palmas.
1. We read stories about cigarette smuggling in Romania,
involving high public officials. What is the situation now?
Are there new investigations and what makes smuggling so tempting?
In April 1998 after an anonymous call to a Romanian newspaper 60 million smuggled cigarettes were discovered aboard a Ukrainian aircraft operated by the Bulgarian private airline "Air Sofia" at the military air terminal of Otopeni international airport.
The scandal over the mysterious delivery of 60 million contraband cigarettes to Bucharest airport claimed its first big victim on 06.05.1998 when the chief of one of Romania's security services resigned.
On February 18 1999 the Court ruled: over 100 years of jail for 19 people involved in this case of smuggling.
BUT many Romanians believe that the authorities are engaged in a mass cover-up of bungled police work and high-level collusion with a well organized smuggling network.
Daily Romanian newspapers present small smuggling cases at Romanian borders and I read recently that one Romanian Deputy (Bivolaru) is involved in one smuggling case with one company from London.
Meanwhile we are still waiting for the Romanian Parliament to vote tobacco control laws!
One very curious thing:
The Finance Ministry decided to put up for sale the "Assos" cigarettes
smuggled into Romania in April last year and confiscated by the police
after the smuggling operation occurred on the military section of
Bucharest Otopeni International Airport.
The 2,500 cartons of Assos cigarettes are to be traded at 180 dollars/carton, in an attempt to recoup part of the damages caused to the state budget. This is exactly what Romanian people need!
2. What are the smoking trends now in Romania?
Is consumption up or down? Are kids smoking more?
What are the most active multinationals?
At this point I will be very short:
Consumption has been growing very much in the last years and the number of young smoker's increase daily.
"Bad understanding of democracy" describes what happened after 1990 in Romania regarding use of tobacco.
Romanians began a new life with all liberties.
One of this was to choose what to smoke without any age restriction.
The big multinational tobacco companies (Phillip Morris, BAT, and RJR) opened factories in Romania.
TV channels presented each tobacco sponsored festivity like great investments that helped the Romanian economy.
Step by step all Romanian market was covered by foreign cigarettes (90%).
For example: last month was launched a new brand: REBEL (no need to explain the name and the link with young people).
The new brand sponsored one concert of one unknown band until now named BUG MAFIA! So, young people can associate the two names: REBEL and MAFIA!
3. What is the Government's attitude toward tobacco control?
Is the Government willing to regulate tobacco?
How big is the influence of the tobacco industry?
The Government's attitude is very unclear and inconstant!
Last week our government announced a new Ordinance forbidding selling tobacco to minors.
This must to be applicable in 30 days but is very unclear how the authorities will find people that don't respect this regulation.
My personal opinion is that the tobacco industry stops very much the legislative process and the authorities don't want to disturb the activity of big investors.
4. You were awarded a portable computer during the Las Palmas Conference. That's great but can you tell us how you operate now, with what budget, where your funding comes from, how many people are involved, what you would need to expand?
This is a burning question for FRESH AIR ROMANIA. The new portable computer that we have now thanks to GLOBALINK and Pharmacia & Upjohn is very useful. Until now, four of our members used it preparing some materials for World No Tobacco Day. There are only volunteers in our group.
We don't have paid staff. We have 20 regular members and approximately 500 sympathizers. We need one permanent office with one person to work 8 hours daily there, taking calls, editing materials, etc.
This would require 500 USD monthly (rent, salary, telephone lineÖ): we don't have that money.
5. I thought the situation in Las Palmas was rather bad: tobacco advertising everywhere, vending machines everywhere, people smoking everywhere. How does that compare with the situation in Romania?
Big tobacco ads are everywhere telling you smoking is the best thing to do in life. If you smoke, you can be young forever, rich and strong.
So it is no surprise to see children 10-15 years old smoking near their schools.
Packs of Viceroy, Winston, Camel, Marlboro, Kent, Gauloises are sold at prices between ‡ and 1 EURO (One Euro is about one US$)
About half of the population smokes.
Considering that 100-150 EURO is the medium income in Romania one serious smoker (1-2 Packs/day) can spend more than a third of his monthly income buying cigarettes!
Tobacco companies have a real impact on developing countries.
People smoke everywhere.
A few months ago my wife was in a hospital.
When I came to visit her I saw one woman smoking: in one hand she had her cigarette and in the other her perfusion!
Yesterday I was with my boys in the park. At the gate one child who was maybe 10-12 years old asked one man for a cigarette. Right away the man gave him his cigarette!
We still have a lot of work to do!
What you feel like adding:
I want to thank all the friends around the world that helped us or will help us in the future.
Thank you for this invitation at rendez-vous. It was a big honor for me to be present here.
You are most welcome. Thank you Cornel for taking the time to be with us today.
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