Tobacco Documents Online

i_f'Ii f.- May 2 , 1986 RECOMMENDATIONS FROM DELEGATION OF INTERNATIONAL NON-GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS ,TO DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION In September of 1985, selected smoking control experts from 39 countries gathered at the American:Society-sponsored INTERNATIONAL SUMMIT OF SMOKING CONTROL LEADERS held in Washington D.C. A number of critically important conclusions and proposals came out of this meeting, including the recommendation that a Task Force chaired by the Chairman (Charles LeMaistre, M.D., ACS National President) and composed of leaders from major international non-governmental health organizations be dispatched to Geneva to represent the need for WHO to establish and demonstrate a substantially larger commitment to smoking control, as appropriate to the magnitude of the problem. Although the SUMMIT meeting reaffirmed its endorsement of the smoking control policy objectives of WHO (and proposals made by the 77th Session of the WHO Executive Board are commendable), our review of WHO's activity in the field of smoking over the past ten years concludes that sound'and appropriate rhetoric has yet to be matched b ap ro riate action. Substantially increased fun ing resources for the WHO initiative in smoking are now required. In support of the Director General's view that smoking is the largest ;,, single preventable cause,of ill health in the world and is responsibleJover two million premature deaths per annum; it is proposed: 1. That WHO should declare control of cigarette smoking as its major public health project for the next decade. 2. A budget commensurate with the size of the problem should be made available within WHO. Provisionally we would suggest an allocation of a sum of the order of, initially, 1% of the total regular budget, expanding rapidly over the next decade. 3. That commensurate with this declaration and resource commitment, WHO should recruit a specialist secretariat to implement world wide smoking control activities. .~ .. The secretariat to be given the mandate and control of the WHO smoking control programs should be placed in the WHO organization structure so as to reflect the high priority as$igned the smoking control program. 4. We suggest that as a first step, 4 to 5 highly expert specialists (plus adequate support_staff) would need to be concentrated at head office and there would be need for at least one specialist in each regional office. ' The headquarters unit would need to work as a discreet entity and to have substantial independence, including direct access to the Director General.

5. We propose that a small Steering Committee composed of appropriate specialists in smoking control and some WHO Executive Board members, should be involved in establishing annual targets for the headquarters unit and in reviewing its performance. The first task for the Steering Committee should be to set up clear targets for individual countries to work towards. Examples include: development of comp ete a ver Tsing_bans; establishment of a pro ressivel inc easin tax structure; application of appropriate ealth warnin s on ci arette packets; development of satisfactory school programs; and establis ment of broadly based, adequately funded, public education programs. The Steering Committee should report annually on worldwide progress in these fields in.order that the Director General may report to the general assembly. The Steering Committee should constantly challenge the tobacco industry's marketing and promotional practices throughout the world. The WHO program should include reports to government heads directly via visits from senior WHO people, including the Director General, with the objective of raising cigarette smoking on national agendas. Further, WHO should make a major effort to influence the UN family to reduce and ultimately eliminate dependence`on tobacco growing and export among developing countries, to oppose the development of tobacco as a cash crop and as a substitute for subsistance crops; and to oppose the development of new tobacco markets in developing countries. It is recommended that the WHO Director General provide a status report on progress toward the achievement of the above proposed actions at the 1987 Sixth World Conference on Smoking and Health to take place in Japan. Sir John Crofton International Union Against Tuberculosis Nigel Gray, A.M., M.B.B.S. F.R.A.C.P.' Chairman: Smoking & Cancer Program International Union Against Cancer ;., Charles'`A. LeMaistre, M.D. President, The American Cancer Society New York, U.S.A. Keith-Ball, M.D. International Society and Federation of Cardiology International Organization of Consumers Unions N c.n 0 Kjell Bjartveit M.D. D.P.H. ~ , ~ Member, Executive Committee, International Union Against Tuberculosis c ~ ~ and Consultant International Union Against Cancer N -s