The Global Fight Against Cancer

Bloomberg News: Tobacco Use Killed 6 Million in 2011, America Cancer Society Says

Tobacco Use Killed 6 Million in 2011, Cancer Society Says
By Bloomberg News - Mar 21, 2011 

Tobacco use killed almost 6 million people last year and was the top cause of death in China, the world’s biggest cigarette market, the American Cancer Society and World Lung Foundation reported.
Four of every five deaths were in low- and middle-income countries, and 1 billion people may die from tobacco use and exposure this century if current trends continue, according to the report, released in Singapore today.

Tobacco-related deaths almost tripled in the past decade amid a 17 percent jump in cigarette production and increased affordability of the cancer-causing products in low-income nations. The tobacco industry generates about $500 billion in annual sales, with the six biggest companies making a combined profit of $35.1 billion in 2010, said Judith Mackay, who co- wrote the report.

“The tobacco industry is among the top-10 most influential industries in the world because of its sheer magnitude of wealth and sales,” Mackay, a physician and adviser to the World Lung Foundation and the World Health Organization, said in a telephone interview on March 20.

Governments have been trying to implement the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a global treaty endorsed by more than 174 countries and recommended by the Geneva-based United Nations agency, to curb smoking.

Plain Packaging Challenge

Producers have been increasing efforts to combat those measures with legal challenges in every region of the world, according to the World Lung Foundation.

These include objections to smoke-free legislation, and opposition to advertising bans and graphic warnings of disease on cigarette packs.

“The wolf is no longer in sheep’s clothing, and its teeth are bared,” Margaret Chan, director general of the Geneva-based WHO, said in a speech in Singapore yesterday. “Paying people to use a country’s judicial system to challenge the legality of measures that protect the public is a flagrant abuse of the judicial system and a flagrant affront to national sovereignty. This is direct interference with a country’s internal affairs.”

Australia, the first nation to require plain packaging on tobacco products, was the subject this month of a complaint by Ukraine to the World Trade Organization over its plan. Philip Morris International Inc. (PM), Imperial Tobacco Group Plc (IMT) and Japan Tobacco Inc. (2914) are among companies that have challenged the law, which Australia is extending to include cigars and loose-leaf tobacco products.

Chinese Consumption

“‘Big Tobacco’ first tried to bully the global community out of advancing this treaty,” said John Stewart, senior organizer of Corporate Accountability International’s campaign Challenging Big Tobacco. “Now it’s attempting to bully countries out of enforcing it.”

Bloomberg Philanthropies is a major donor to the World Lung Foundation. Bloomberg Philanthropies was set up by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.

China is the world’s biggest producer and consumer of tobacco, accounting for 38 percent of cigarettes smoked worldwide in 2009, the groups said today.

Excise should be almost tripled in China to dissuade young people from becoming addicted, the World Health Organization said on March 14.

The price of cigarettes in China is already “quite high” and the ability of higher prices to discourage smoking isn’t proven, Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei said in Beijing on March 11.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Daryl Loo in Beijing at [email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jason Gale at [email protected]

Reuters Cites Tobacco Atlas: Smoking Deaths Triple over Decade

By Kate Kelland LONDON | Wed Mar 21, 2012 7:36am EDT (Reuters) - Tobacco-related deaths have nearly tripled in the past decade and big tobacco firms are undermining public efforts that could save millions, a report led by the health campaign group the World Lung Foundation (WLF) said on Wednesday. In the report, marking the tenth anniversary of its first Tobacco Atlas, the WLF and the American Cancer Society said if current trends continue, a billion people will die from tobacco use and exposure this century - one person every six seconds. Tobacco has killed 50 million people in the last 10 years, and tobacco is responsible for more than 15 percent of all male deaths and 7 percent of female deaths, the new Tobacco Atlas report found. (www.tobaccoatlas.org) In China, tobacco is already the number one killer - causing 1.2 million deaths a year - and that number is expected to rise to 3.5 million a year by 2030, the report said. That is part of a broader shift, with smoking rates in the developed world declining but numbers growing in poorer regions, said Michael Eriksen, one of the report's authors and director of the Institute of Public Health at Georgia State University. "If we don't act, the projections for the future are even more morbid. And the burden of death caused by tobacco is increasingly one of the developing world, particularly Asia, the Middle East and Africa," he said in an interview. Almost 80 percent of people who die from tobacco-related illnesses now come from low- and middle-income countries. In Turkey, 38 percent of male deaths are from smoking-related illnesses, though smoking also remains the biggest killer of American women too. WLF's chief executive Peter Baldini accused the tobacco industry of thriving on ignorance about the true effect of smoking and "misinformation to subvert health policies that could save millions". The report said the industry had stepped up its fight against anti-tobacco policies, launching legal challenges and seeking to delay or stop the introduction of plain packaging, legislation banning smoking in public places, advertising bans and health warnings on packets. The world's six biggest tobacco firms made $35.1 billion in profits in 2010 - equal to the combined earnings of Coca-Cola, Microsoft and McDonald's, the report said. Smoking causes lung cancer as well as several other chronic pulmonary diseases and is a major risk factor in heart disease, the world's number one killer. More than 170 countries have signed up to a World Health Organization-led convention committing them to cut smoking rates, limiting exposure to second-hand smoke, and curbing tobacco advertising and promotion. WHO director general Margaret Chan said thanks in part to that convention, 1.1 billion people have in the past two years become covered by at least one measure designed to curb tobacco use. She added, however, that the battle was far from over and urged more countries to fight the industry. "We must never allow the tobacco industry to get the upper hand," she said in a foreword to the report. "Tobacco is a killer. It should not be advertised, subsidized or glamorized." (Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Ben Harding)

Reuters Reports Smoking is a Drag on World Economy: Tobacco Atlas is Source

By Mark Tay SINGAPORE | Wed Mar 21, 2012 8:51am EDT (Reuters) - Smoking costs the world 1 to 2 percent of its gross domestic product each year and could kill about 1 billion people this century, authors of the fourth edition of the Tobacco Atlas said at the book's launch in Singapore. The economic losses include direct and indirect costs such as healthcare spending for treating smoking-related illnesses and the value of lost productivity, say the authors of the book, which is published by the American Cancer Society. The cost of smoking could be even greater, as co-author Hana Ross said it was difficult to measure intangible costs like the suffering of family members or pain felt by patients. "During the 20th century, tobacco killed 100 million people. The estimate is that in the 21st century, tobacco will kill 1 billion people," lead author Michael Eriksen said at the launch of the book at a global health conference in Singapore. The world's population has grown by more than four times in the last century, passing the 7 billion mark last year. Eriksen said there are about 1 billion tobacco users around the world and 600,000 non-smokers die each year because of exposure to second-hand smoke - 75 percent of them women and children. China is by far the world's largest consumer of cigarettes, with 38 percent of them in 2009, and saw costs due to smoking more than quadruple to $28.9 billion between 2000 and 2008, the authors said in the book. "China has quite a problem because the tobacco industry is part of the government," co-author Judith Mackay said, noting that Beijing's move to raise tobacco taxes two years ago did not change the purchase price of cigarettes but merely manipulated the way taxes were paid to the government. "China is in a process of change. It needs a little bit of the stick but quite a lot of encouragement to really take the process forward," Mackay said. The world's most populous nation is one of the 174 countries to have signed and ratified the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Some countries, including the United States and Argentina, have signed but not ratified, while Indonesia, Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe have done neither. Eriksen described such treaties as "toothless". "Any treaty is written by the member states who are the ones who are going to have to ratify it, so it is not in their interest to have penalties," he said. "If you ratify and don't do anything, there is no financial penalty, which is wrong because there should be teeth. It is a life and death situation." (Editing by Robert Birsel)

Bangladesh News Reports on the Important Role of Finance Ministers in Tobacco Control: Article Cites Tobacco Atlas

"Raising tobacco taxes saves lives by encouraging smokers to quit,

reduce the number of cigarettes smoked and prevent potential users from ever starting"

                       — John R Seffrin, PhD, chief executive officer of American Cancer Society

Nurul Islam Hasib
Senior Correspondent from Singapore

Singapore —  As tobacco control pits health ministers against finance ministers in many countries where the former is 'unlikely' to win, public health experts at a global conference suggest innovative approaches to unite them to fight against the tobacco industries.

Social movement through strong civil society coalition has been seen instrumental in this regard, they observed on Wednesday, the second day of the 15th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Singapore.

"It's (tobacco control) a political talk especially when it pits the health minister against the finance minister," said professor K Srinath Reddy, president of Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI).

He said economic arguments were important but again it was part of a political battle.

"But you cannot expect health minister's victory over finance minister. Finance minister is politically stronger and senior in the cabinet. Health minister too needs the goodwill of the finance minister for other health programmes.

"So what we can expect is concord between them to move the finance minister to a neutral position from active opposition," Prof Reddy, the leading public health expert in India, said in a paper presented on Wednesday.

Dr Monika Arora, head of tobacco control of the public-private initiative PHFI, presented the paper on his behalf. Prof Reddy could not come because of his last moment engagement in a state programme.

Earlier, representatives from a number of countries including India, Kenya, Mexico, Russia and Indonesia said tobacco control activities do not progress in their countries due to interference by tobacco companies through the finance ministry.

A bdnews24.com investigation also found the finance ministry had shot down a move (Tougher tobacco law plan botched) by the health ministry to draft a tobacco stricter control act in Bangladesh.

Prof Reddy in his paper said even in India, the finance ministry was presently not favouring strong tobacco control measures, although health ministry wanted it.

"But still then we can win over the finance minister if the economic argument, development, disease burden, vulnerability and right to life argument of non-smokers and children are made.

"And if we counter tobacco industry's misleading arguments convincingly. Tobacco control will not lead to unemployment, need not hurt farmers, will not result in revenue loss, will not discourage foreign investment. [We need to] mobilise civil society to vigorously campaign against tobacco industry's fear and smear tactics."

He said while the finance minister was the main decision maker on taxation, others will exert influence on the overall tobacco control policy.

"We have to remember that donations to political parties also influence government attitudes. Policies are not made in pure isolation in closed cabinet rooms.

"Economists are also divided. So to whom finance minister will listen to?" He added the civil society coalition needed to be expanded taking all relevant stakeholders on board.

Prof Reddy said in short terms raised taxes will raise revenues. "As consumption goes down, non or ex-smokers will spend their disposable incomes on other goods which are also taxable.

"Total economic tally of tobacco related health, environmental and social costs will amount to an economic and developmental cost that exceeds any loss of tobacco revenues," he argued

Bangladesh data shows that tobacco-related healthcare costs alone exceed tobacco revenues.

Even then, he said, if the finance minister listened to the industry, 'get the non-tobacco segments of the industry to understand why tobacco control was important for them too'.

"Tobacco related disease leads to productivity losses among their employees and workforce in general; tobacco related expenditure drains disposable incomes which can be used for buying other products which they make.

"Show that tobacco industry is a law breaker. It evades excise tax and encourages illicit trade.

"And finally give the argument that tobacco control is the integral part of sustainable development."

John R Seffrin, chief executive officer of American Cancer Society, appreciated the idea and said tobacco taxation was the 'best buy' for the economy and for saving lives.

He said tax can be a major threat of tobacco companies' existence in a country.

"Because of increased tobacco taxes, cancer survival rate has increased in US, decreasing mortality rate."

"Raising tobacco taxes saves lives by encouraging smokers to quit, reduce the number of cigarettes smoked and prevent potential users from ever starting," he said.

According to American Cancer Society, 10 percent increase in cigarette prices reduces demand by 2 to 6 percent in high-income countries and by 2 to 8 percent in low and middle-income countries.

Youth, minorities, and low-income smokers are two to three times more likely than other smokers to quit or go smokeless in response to price increases, it said.

bdnews24.com/nih/bd/1643h                            

American Cancer Society and World Lung Foundation Release New Tobacco Atlas

Singapore — Smoking costs 1 to 2 percent of the world's gross domestic product each year. The habit could kill about 1 billion people this century, according to authors of the 4th edition of the Tobacco Atlas.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) and World Lung Foundation (WLF) debuted the 4th edition of the Atlas at the World Conference on Tobacco OR Health in Singapore. CEOs Dr. John Seffrin and Peter Baldini from ACS and WLF, respectively, introduced Atlas findings.

Authors Dr. Michael Eriksen, Dr. Judith Mackay, and Dr. Hana Ross recounted progress made in the past decade since publication of the first Tobacco Atlas in 2002. They also discussed challenges posed by the tactics of the multi-billion dollar tobacco industry.  Additionally, ACS researcher Michal Stoklosa showed a new interactive map on tobaccoatlas.org that allows users hone in on maps to find the tobacco manufacturing plants across the globe.

Compelling graphics of data from key sections of the Atlas illustrate costs to society, solutions through marketing and treaties, as well as warnings about the growing smokeless tobacco market. 

The Tobacco Atlas plenary session drew more than 1000 delegates.  For more information about the launch visit pressroom.cancer.org/ Follow conference updates on Twitter #WCTOH12.

 

Big Tobacco's Newest Most Vulnerable Victims – Young Women

By Cynthia M. LeBlanc, Ed.D, Chair, American Cancer Society

Singapore: Today, the American Cancer Society released the 4th edition of the global Tobacco Atlas, a joint publication with the World Lung Foundation, at the World Conference on Tobacco OR Health in Singapore. Among other findings, the book notes that the top 6 tobacco manufacturers earned more than $35 billion in profit in 2010. That same year, there were almost 6 million deaths from tobacco. To put this in context, these tobacco companies earn almost $6,000 in profit per death caused by tobacco.

They use this wealth and power to market to young people, particularly young women, in many low- and middle-income countries. Despite a World Health Organization (WHO) global public health treaty that includes measures such as banning tobacco ads and sponsorships, which would curb use among young people, many ads still actually feature candy and youth-oriented lingo. In countries where women are making real strides to achieve gender equality, tobacco marketers use their enormous profits to pepper billboards with ads that associate smoking with women's empowerment. They also find ways to skirt laws that prohibit marketing near schools, arcades, and other venues frequented by youth.

Dr. Margaret Chan, the director-general of WHO, is among many health advocates in Singapore calling out "Big Tobacco" for what they are doing and demanding more public outrage to influence laws against tobacco. In her keynote speech, Dr. Chan invoked a popular former US cigarette ad from the 1960s, putting her own twist on it. As Dr. Chan said, “We’ve come a long way, bullies. We will not be fazed by your harassment."

Harassment and bullying usually affects the most vulnerable populations. Indeed, the Atlas shows an alarming trend – the gap between teenage girls and teenage boys who smoke is closing. If these patterns continue, the consequences for women, families, and economies will be devastating. Women and children are also the victims of the deadly toxins in secondhand smoke. In countries with a high male and low female smoking prevalence, the secondhand smoke exposure causes illness and death. In fact, women and children account for 75% of the 600,000 deaths caused by secondhand smoke. Women who smoke also increase their risk for fertility problems and low birth-weight babies.

Tobacco control is essential to reduce noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in women. These diseases – which include cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and respiratory diseases – account for more than 63% of global deaths.
 
There is an active and impressive growing global movement within the United Nations, multilateral agencies, and NGOs to improve health, quality of life, and human rights for women. Aggressive measures to combat the growing tobacco epidemic and the multi-million-dollar campaigns by the tobacco industry to addict young women should become a priority for all of those seeking to protect the health and safety of women.

Join the American Cancer Society in Marking International Women's Day on March 8th

Washington, D.C. — More than 10,000 women lose their lives to cancer each day worldwide. Yet, this disease still does not receive adequate attention and resources.  Please join us to honor International Women’s Day on Thursday March 8 and help call for global attention to cancer:

Share a story: From Brazil to Britain, Uganda to Uruguay — read the stories of women cancer survivors, caregivers, and advocates.  Their courage inspires!  Share these compelling stories on Facebook or Twitter. Be sure to use the #IWD hashtag and mention your support in the fight against women's cancers.

Join our Twitter chat: On March 8, International Women’s Day, we are hosting a panel discussion in the U.S. capital, educating influencers on the need to make women’s cancers a priority. From 2 pm to 2:30 pm ET, we will host a live Twitter Q&A with the moderator of the panel discussion, American Cancer Society's deputy chief medical officer Dr. Len Lichtenfeld. Dr. Len will share insights from the panel discussion and answer your questions. Please join us by tweeting your questions to @ACSGlobal.