Feature Article

United States Fails to Ratify Treaty, Will Not Have a Vote

Presently, officials from more than 110 nations around the world, representing 70 percent of the world's population, are meeting in Geneva, Switzerland to further implement the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FTC). This is the first meeting of the Conference of the Parties, those nations that ratified and form the governing body of the treaty. Of those nations that have yet to ratify the treaty, the United States, Russia and Indonesia are the most notable.

Many of the included countries have already put into place some of the provisions of the treaty. Ireland, Norway and Spain recently prohibited smoking in indoor public places, India has implemented a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising, and graphic warnings on cigarette packages have been required in Brazil, Canada, Thailand and Singapore.

The WHO estimates that if the measures in the treaty are adopted, a 50 percent reduction in new smokers as well as consumption rates could be achieved, resulting in 200 million lives saved by the year 2050. Participating countries must mandate health warnings on tobacco products within three years, and implement comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship within five years.

Tobacco is the second leading cause of death globally, accounting for about 5 million deaths per year. The WHO projects that this number could grow as high as 10 million a year by 2030. The WHO Tobacco Free Initiative believes that the most cost-effective means of reducing tobacco use on a global scale are population-wide public policies. These policies include tobacco advertising bans, tobacco tax and price increases, smoke-free policies in all workplaces and public places, and graphic health warnings on all tobacco products.

Eight-four percent of the 1.3 billion smokers worldwide live in developing countries. The global tobacco industry actively worked against the establishment of the treaty, and they continue to work against the treaty's implementation.   Tobacco corporations are actively lobbying the governments of developing nations, such as Nigeria, to adopt the weakest health policies allowable by the treaty.  Last spring, Altria Group, parent company to Philip Morris, took over one of the largest cigarette manufacturers in Indonesia. As the tobacco industry continues to look to the developing world in the attempt to expand their market, the provisions of the WHO treaty will help to protect people across the world from the dangers of tobacco use.