OneWorld - Countries meet to rein in Big Tobacco

Some 160 countries are meeting to define the tobacco industry's role in public health. Industry lobbying is considered the primary obstacle to enforcing anti-smoking public health measures worldwide, reports a corporate abuse watchdog group.

Protesting Big Tobacco's interference in the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC): "Butt Out of the FCTC."

Some 160 countries are meeting to define the tobacco industry's role in public health. Industry lobbying is considered the primary obstacle to enforcing anti-smoking public health measures worldwide, reports a corporate abuse watchdog group.

Protesting Big Tobacco's interference in the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC): "Butt Out of the FCTC."

Four years ago, U.S. President George W. Bush signed the tobacco treaty, but he has yet to submit it to the Senate for ratification. In 2005, now-President-elect Barack Obama, along with 10 other U.S. senators, called on President Bush to send the treaty to the Senate for consideration. At that time Obama wrote, "The FCTC [Framework Convention on Tobacco Control] is a crucially important step for public health both globally and here at home. The treaty provides the tools needed to combat the damage inflicted by tobacco....The U.S. must seize this opportunity to show leadership in combating the global tobacco epidemic."

"[T]obacco is the only legally available consumer product which kills people when it is used entirely as intended," according to the Oxford Medical Companion. It is the greatest preventable cause of death and disease in the world, claiming over 5 million lives every year, adds Corporate Accountability International, a corporate abuse watchdog group.

The main forces driving the global consumption of tobacco are Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, and Japan Tobacco. The combined revenue of these transnational corporations exceeds the combined GDP of El Salvador, Georgia, Ghana, Honduras, Jordan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Senegal, Sri Lanka, and Uganda. Each company is also known for marketing their products to children and using "their political influence to weaken, delay and defeat tobacco control legislation around the world," states Corporate Accountability.

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