Tobacco Documents Online

Central Office: Emmastraat 9 2595 EG The Hague Netherlands. Tel: (31 70) 47 63 31 Cable: Interocu Telex: 33561 ^i_~~CIyJ/~~ . i INTERNATIONAL ORGANiZATiON OF CONSUMERS UNIONS IOCU is an independent non-profit foundation registered in The Netherlands, which links the activities of consumer organizations in some 50 countries. IOCU protects and promotes consumer interests worldwide through research, information and education and it represents the consumer interest in international fora. IOCU has a regional office for Asia and the Pacific: P.O. Box 1045, 10830 Penang, Malaysia. Phone: (60 4) 20391; Cable: Interocu Penang; Telex 40164. To IOCU Associates/Correspondents AGHAST Contacts AS/86• 524/se 2 June 1986 Dear I'riends,. ACHAST UPDATE No. 3 I just returned from two weeks intensive lobbying in Geneva, where the 39th World Health Assembly was held, with tobacco as one of the important agenda items. For the first time the AGiAST Campaign and its views were being presented to delegates from the various countries; making them understand and appreciate AGHAST's concerns was a strange, but fascinating job. The setting is very fluid and unpredictable: one minute you are listening to boring discussions in a committee meeting, and the next you find yourself at a coffee table talking to one of the delegates. Before the Assembly opened, IOCU particip3ted in a meeting with Dr. h~er together with four other international organizations (see Update and enclosures). The international smoking control delegation presented Dr. Nb.hler a per with recommendations and the request on WHO to use its prestige to take a leading role in combatting the smoking epidemic. These reconnendations also became the starting point for our lobbying efforts. , Initially we had hoped to get the WHA not only to adopt the Executive Board's draft resolution "Smoking or Health" (see Update no. 1), but also to strengthen it. After a couple of days hard work in the corridors, the industry became active. They distributed a piece of paper called the 'Rio de Janeiro Declaration', causing confusion among delegates, especially among those countries with economies heavily dependent on tobacco as a cash crop earner. This forced us to 1change tactics; from then onwards we concentrated to get the draft resolution adopted without any arnendments. I am happy to say we succeeded and the WHA p3.ssed the strongest ever statement on tobacco. 1

The enclosed AGHAST Update, no. 3, gives besides its regular country news, news on the World Health Assembly and has added as extra p.apers: - the IOCU statement by Lars Broch, Director - recommendations to Dr. Mahler by the internationall smoking control delegation - the Rio de Janeiro Declaration from the industry - one of the highlights of the debate, the speech by US Surgeon General, Dr. Everett Koop. During the WHA the HAI/IBFAN/IOCU team brought out a conference newspaper called 'Health Now'. It reported on important Assembly News and surrounding events, providing background and commentary on esp. pharmaceuticals, babyfood and tobacco. A collage of the tobacco coverage is enclosed. The complete set of six issues of 'Health Now' can be obtained from the IOCU Central Office: they make very interesting reading! I hope you will enjoy the third A~'rIAST Update. Feel free to write back to me with comments, ideas and most important news on your activities. Atie Schipaanboo`r AGHAST Coordinator IOCU Central Office slo