News Release

WHO Framework Convention is "a major public health triumph," says SPH tobacco policy expert

June 3, 2003 press release from the University of Michigan School of Public Health

In what SPH Professor Kenneth Warner terms a “major public health triumph,” the World Health Assembly on May 21 unanimously adopted the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) aimed at curbing tobacco-related deaths and disease worldwide. This was the first time in its 56-year history that the World Health Organization has exercised its international treaty-making authority.

The World Health Assembly is the supreme decision-making body for WHO. Warner, the Avedis Donabedian Distinguished University Professor of Public Health and director of the University of Michigan Tobacco Research Network, represented the World Bank in four of the six negotiating sessions leading up to adoption of the FCTC.

Broad in scope and frequently very specific in its level of detail, the convention requires countries to do a number of things, among these to impose restrictions on tobacco advertising, sponsorship, and promotion; establish new labeling and clean indoor-air controls; and strengthen legislation to clamp down on tobacco smuggling. Although Warner points out that a framework convention is often not as specific as an official treaty, it nonetheless sets forth a firm statement of principles by which countries that ratify the convention agree to abide. Forty countries must ratify the FCTC for it to take effect.

Even if a number of countries ultimately yield to political pressures, including heavy lobbying by the tobacco industry, and refuse to ratify the FCTC, as Warner and others anticipate, the convention still represents “a great step forward,” Warner says. While he is uncertain how long the ratification process will take, he is sure that it will be “a tough negotiation in many countries. My suspicion, though, is that we’ll get more than 40 countries ratifying it, and it will become international law.”

Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, director-general of WHO, told the 56th World Health Assembly, whose 192 members adopted the convention, “This is a historic moment in global public health, demonstrating the international will to tackle a threat to health head on. Now we must see this convention come into force as soon as possible, and countries must use it as the basis of their national tobacco-control legislation.”

At the instigation of Derek Yach, then director of the Tobacco Free Initiative at WHO, the WHA began considering the convention seven years ago. During the negotiation sessions, Warner, on behalf of the World Bank, presented evidence to counter many of the economic myths linked to tobacco. These included the idea that increased taxes would necessarily fuel smuggling and thereby reduce government revenue, and that a drop in demand for tobacco products would lead to increased unemployment, as workers in various tobacco-related sectors, ranging from tobacco farming to advertising, lost their jobs.

“Warner’s powerful and persuasive arguments played a key role in governments’ being willing to adopt the Framework Convention with its strong package of effective measures,” said Yach. Dr. Judith Mackay, senior policy advisor on tobacco at WHO and director of the Asian Consultancy on Tobacco Control, called Warner’s input “vital. It became clear that the principal concern of member states, especially developing countries, was economic. Dr. Warner’s towering and authoritative presence put their minds at rest.”

Warner was a principal economic consultant on the 1999 World Bank report “Curbing the Epidemic: Governments and the Economics of Tobacco Control,” an analysis that concluded that strong tobacco control measures are warranted by both health and economic considerations. The document served as a critical source of information to participants in the negotiation sessions.

If ratified, the Framework Convention will have an enormous impact worldwide, not only in countries that ratify the convention but also in neighboring countries, Warner says. For one thing, ordinary citizens will see fewer ads for tobacco products and much larger and more graphic warnings about the dangers of tobacco use. Tobacco prices will rise. Public places will become smoke-free. Tobacco smuggling will also decrease. “Today, worldwide, 30 percent of the cigarettes that are legally exported are never legally imported anywhere,” says Warner. He adds, “It’s very important for the U.S. to be involved in curtailing smuggling, since much of it begins with the export of U.S. cigarettes.” A simple, Fed Ex–style international tracking system could eliminate much of the world’s illegal traffic in tobacco products.

It’s especially critical to control activities such as smuggling because these affect the developing world disproportionately. And it’s the developing world, Warner says, that faces the greatest future threat from tobacco use. According to WHO projections, by the year 2030, 70% of tobacco-produced deaths worldwide will occur in developing countries. WHO officials estimate that if tobacco use is not curbed, one billion people will die this century as a direct result of tobacco.

Links for more information:

WHO press releases, fact sheets and features and background on the FCTC: http://tobacco.who.int/

Interview with Ken Warner on the May 7 radio show "On Point" , a production of NPR affiliate WBUR in Boston--listen at:
http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2003/05/20030507_a_main.asp

Contact: Terri Mellow, Director, Office of Communications
Phone: (734) 764-8094
E-mail: twm@umich.edu

© 2003 The Regents of the University of Michigan
Updated June 3, 2003