tcrc newsletter - March 2003

Welcome to the latest edition of the TCRC newsletter.

Want the facts?

During the final negotiations of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in February this year, the Tobacco Control Resource Centre (TCRC) launched a new online database Tobacco FactFile. Tobacco FactFile has been designed for health professionals, educationalists, the public and the media. It is the first one-stop information source about tobacco of its kind.

The launch of 'Tobacco FactFile' took place at midday at the Palais Des Nations in Geneva. The key speaker was Dr Gro-Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), "As a doctor, I believe in the scientific evidence. Tobacco FactFile brings together the world's best available evidence on tobacco and health. A vital tool for tobacco control."

Also welcoming the project, Professor Sir Richard Doll, whose pioneering research first demonstrated the link between smoking and lung cancer, said: "Effective tobacco control policies must be firmly rooted in the evidence. 'Tobacco FactFile' presents reliable information on the true consequences of tobacco use. A treasury of information for tobacco control."

Did you know?

• Fact: Approximately 85% of secondhand smoke is in the form of invisible, odourless gases with only the particulate matter in the form of smoke being visible to the human eye.
• Fact: Banning all tobacco advertising, strengthening health warnings and making public places smokefree could save 27 million lives worldwide.
• Fact: Consumption of just 1,000 tons of tobacco costs the worlds' annual economy US$200billion.
• Fact: Cigarette butts accounted for almost one-fifth of all items collected in the International Coastal Cleanup Project.
• Fact: The tobacco industry earns approximately €50,000 from each new smoker.

Tobacco FactFile presents distilled facts from major medical journals as well as policy reports and key monographs. The facts cover all aspects of tobacco, from addiction and cessation to the tactics of the tobacco industry and the impact of tobacco production on the environment.

There is also a set of facts for almost every country in the world. This set of information covers: smoking prevalence; childrens exposure to secondhand smoke; cigarette production; and tobacco taxation. Much of the data for this section has been extracted from a number of authoritative sources including the Global Youth Tobacco Survey, The Tobacco Atlas and IARC.

Tobacco FactFile is also available in French, German and Spanish and the records can be downloaded into a citation manager such as Reference Manager or ProCite. Users can also sign up to receive a fact posted directly to their inbox either weekly of monthly, and can register to place a fact banner on their websites.

With an expert panel of editors, contributors and forthcoming alliances with international sources, the information base in Tobacco FactFile will continue to grow.

For simple, free access to the facts about tobacco bookmark Tobacco FactFile - www.tobaccofactfile.org

tcrc newsletter, November 2002

Welcome to the latest edition of the TCRC newsletter.

Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland commends the Doctors' Manifesto for Global Tobacco Control. October 2002

Medical organisations around the world have urged governments to put health before commercial trade and profit in the fight against tobacco. They have endorsed Tobacco Under the Microscope the Doctors' Manifesto for Global Tobacco Control, recently released by the British Medical Association's Tobacco Control Resource Centre.

Speaking at the launch Dr. Brundtland stated: " When the physician speaks, most people take notice. So should policy makers. I commend this document to governments. The Manifesto sends a clear message to all policy makers."

Images from left to right: The document was launched in October 2002 at a press event during international governmental negotiations in Geneva for the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control; At the event Dr Sinéad Jones Director of the BMA Tobacco Control Resource Centre, Dr. Delon Human of the World Medical Association and Dr. Jane Richards of the Commonwealth Medical Association presented the Manifesto to Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland.

The Manifesto is endorsed by more than 130 medical associations world wide. Based on the evidence, it focuses on six measures that have proved effective in the battle to curb deaths from smoking and which doctors would like to see included in the convention. The Manifesto calls for:

• Clear and informative health warning on every packet of tobacco
• An end to misleading claims that some cigarettes are safer than others
• An increase in tobacco taxes
• The protection of non-smokers from tobacco smoke
• An to end all forms of tobacco advertising
• The WHO convention to give the highest possible priority to health, ensuring that it takes precedence over commercial trade, rather than the other way round.

Tobacco related illnesses are the single biggest cause of death in Europe, and developing countries are already struggling to cope with the burden of infectious disease.

Dr Sinéad Jones, Director of the Tobacco Control Resource Centre, highlighted the particular difficulties that many developing countries face in protecting the health of their population, because of restrictive trade agreements.

"WHO are currently negotiating with governments, and we are confident that a meaningful framework convention that will reduce tobacco related deaths will be ratified next year. As yet, however, we don't think it goes far enough," she said.

Image: Dr Sinéad Jones, Director of the Tobacco Control Resource Centre

"This deadly trade in tobacco condemns millions worldwide to disability and an early death," commented Dr Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the British Medical Association. "It's time we protected vulnerable people, including children, and protected health, not the tobacco traders."

Some 30 eminent doctors from around the world made individual contributions to the document. There is now a web based facility for further doctors to make statements in support of effective tobacco control. They can access this facility by visiting www.doctorsmanifesto.org

tcrc newsletter, July 2002

Student placement. July-August 2002

During July and August, Jonathan Horner, will be joining us as a placement student. His main project is to update and expand the links section of this website. Jonathan is currently in his final year at Edinburgh University studying psychology. His main interest in tobacco lies in the behavioural aspects of addiction, but he is also keen to learn more about European tobacco control policy.

Please let us know if you want your website featured in our links section, contact Jonathan at: J_Horner@hotmail.com

Doctors and Tobacco: Russian Translation. July 2002

The russian translation of our book Doctors and Tobacco: Medicine's Big Challenge, is now available to download free from this website.

We hope to put the Japanese and Korean translations on the site by the end of the year.

ARM, Harrogate. July 2002

The TCRC exhibit at the Annual Representatives Meeting of the British Medical Association in Harrogate was a great success. Over 500 free copies of the new CD Rom were distributed and the new look website had its first preview.

Tobacco or Health, Warsaw. June 2002

Dr Sinéad Jones, Director of TCRC, chaired a very successful session which discussed tobacco and cessation in medical education at the 3rd World Conference on Tobacco or Health, Warsaw, 20-22 June 2002. TCRC will also hosted an informal workshop for attending respresentatives of EU national medical associations.

tcrc newsletter, June 2002

CD ROM NOW AVAILABLE. May 2002

The CD Rom version of Doctors and Tobacco: Medicine's Big Challenge is now available. The CD contains the book in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. It also features Keep Smiling, No One's Going to Die, an analysis of internal tobacco industry advertising documents and the BMA/ASH report Warning: Smoking Causes Male Sexual Impotence.

Contact TCRC for more information about ordering copies

PUBLIC HEARING ON THE ADVERTISING DIRECTIVE. 15 April 2002

In October 2000 the European Court of Justice annulled a 1998 directive (98/43/EC) which regulated direct and indirect advertising of tobacco products and sponsorship. The Case (C-376/98 Germany v. Parliament and Council) argued that the directive did not facilitate trade in the community.

On 15th April a modified directive proposal was chaired by Guiseppe Gargani MEP. A strong case was made by public health interest groups. Imperial Tobacco protested that a ban was likely to be ineffective as well as an infringement of freedom of expression. Sir Alexander Macara on behalf of the standing committee of European Doctors sited article 152 of the EC treaty 'A high level of human health protection shall be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Community policies and activities.' He added, 'this parliament, has a legal duty, as well as a moral duty, to pass as stringent a ban on tobacco advertising and sponsorship as possible.' Two of the three academic experts present agreed that the proposal should be enacted and Professor José Manuel Otero Lastres stated that the directive could also have included indirect advertising. Max Mosely, President of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile confirmed that he supported the previous and the current directive and that given a sufficient cross over period, Formula 1 racing would be able to enact an effective world-wide ban on tobacco advertising and sponsorship. The directive is currently awaiting a vote in the plenary.

BEYOND MEDICINE: THE DOCTORS ROLE IN TOBACCO CONTROL. 18 February 2002

TCRC was invited to hold a workshop during the WHO European Ministerial Conference for a Tobacco-free Europe which took place on 18-19 February 2002 in Warsaw.

Our keynote speaker, Sir Richard Doll of University of Oxford, recounted the history of his groundbreaking study which linked smoking with lung cancer and discussed his plans to finalise the 50 year study. Also speaking were: Dr Eva Kralikova, Charles University, Czech Republic; Dr Sinéad Jones, TCRC; Dr Alan Rowe, former secretary of EFMA; and Dr Konstanty Radziwill, President of the Polish Chamber of Physicians and Dentists.

To mark the event, our speakers and other eminent doctors donned white coats and posed for photographs (see right).

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