Letter from Dr Ian Bogle, British Medical Association, to the Times

15 May 2000

Sir,

Your editorial (Unhealthy Ambitions 15/05/00) calls on Governments to reconsider the priorities of the WHO in relation to communicable disease versus tobacco control. This is a false choice. Both are urgent priorities, but your Leader perpetuates the myth that tobacco is only an issue for affluent people and affluent countries. The face of the tobacco epidemic is not rich - it is poor.

Tobacco is both a high priority in health and a truly international concern. The data speak for themselves. In 1990, smoking accounted for one in six adult deaths; in 2020, it will account for one in three. Every nine seconds, someone dies from a disease caused by tobacco - that's 3.5 million preventable deaths a year. In the next twenty years, the toll will rise to one death every three seconds - or 10 million deaths annually. Seven out of every ten of those killed will be from poorer countries.

Tobacco is the greatest single preventable threat to world health. A recent World Bank report [1] highlighted the economic losses associated with tobacco and concluded that public-health measures such as health warnings, taxation and bans on advertising and promotion were needed to halt the epidemic. Yet while these measures may be in force in some richer countries, consumers in the rest of the world do not enjoy the same level of protection. The World Bank emphasise the need for international action to tackle tobacco, and urged support for the Framework Convention.

The United Kingdom has a clear responsibility in this matter. The British-based tobacco industry is among the largest trans-national cigarette manufacturers. As tobacco consumption in the UK falls, British tobacco companies are increasingly looking to market opportunities elsewhere.

Tobacco is indiscriminate in causing suffering and death. The Framework Convention for Tobacco Control [2] being developed by the World Health Organisation is an international legal instrument designed to protect the public health against the global spread of tobacco, and to eliminate double-standards that discriminate against the poorest and most vulnerable. The British Medical Association congratulates Dr Brundtland on this initiative and urges the Government to facilitate its development and implementation.

Dr Ian Bogle
Chairman of Council
British Medical Association

Notes

1. 'Curbing the Epidemic: Governments and The Economics of Tobacco', 1998. The World Bank.
Available online at: http://www1.worldbank.org/tobacco/index.htm

2. More information on the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Online at: http://www.who.int/toh/fctc/fctcintro.htm

ENDS