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CNN Live At Daybreak
World Health Organization Adopts Anti-Tobacco Treaty
Aired May 21, 2003 - 05:44 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: In Geneva, the World Health Organization has adopted an anti-tobacco treaty. The U.S. has been accused of dragging its feet on the issue, but Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson now says the U.S. supports the measure. The treaty would greatly restrict the marketing and selling of tobacco products internationally. Governments have one year to ratify it.
For more on the trailblazing treaty, we turn to CNN's Diana Muriel in London.
Good morning -- Diana.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Hamlet cigar advert, a classic of its genre in Britain in the 1970s, but here in the U.K. the days are long gone when tobacco companies could promote their products over the airwaves. And that could go for most of the rest of the world, too, if a tough, new treaty is adopted.
Championed by the World Health Organization's outgoing executive director, Gro Harlem Brundtland, the framework convention on tobacco control demands a total ban on cigarette advertising, bigger health warnings on cigarette packets, a crackdown on tobacco smuggling and measures to raise prices. But cigarette companies warned the convention could have seriously negative side effects.
COLIN PROCTOR, BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO: If there are ways to make cigarettes that reduce the risks of smoking, you won't be able to promote them, and that's a problem. Increasing taxes, well, that's been a government policy for centuries. It works if you do it gradually. If you do it excessively, what happens is the legal market disappears and everyone goes to buy smuggled and counterfeited products.
MURIEL: But WHO argues that adopting these measures could save millions of lives. Smoking-related deaths are on the rise. Some estimates expect them to double to 10 million a year over the next two decades.
The argument has convinced many. In a surprise move, the United States health minister, Tommy Thompson, has indicated support for the treaty. Germany, too, which also objects to a blanket ban on advertising on the grounds of freedom of speech, is also likely to sign. JEAN KING, CANCER RESEARCH U.K.: Fortunately, both of those countries are not going to block the treaty. That was what we were concerned about. Generally, again, there is big support, because these are measures that we have been successful, to some degree in the West, in introducing.
(on camera): It's taken four years to hammer out the terms of the terms of the treaty, which needs only a two-thirds majority by World Health Organization members to be adopted. If it is passed, it will be the first global pact committing governments to deal with a public health issue which has already claimed the lives of millions.
Diana Muriel, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired May 21, 2003 - 05:44 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: In Geneva, the World Health Organization has adopted an anti-tobacco treaty. The U.S. has been accused of dragging its feet on the issue, but Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson now says the U.S. supports the measure. The treaty would greatly restrict the marketing and selling of tobacco products internationally. Governments have one year to ratify it.
For more on the trailblazing treaty, we turn to CNN's Diana Muriel in London.
Good morning -- Diana.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Hamlet cigar advert, a classic of its genre in Britain in the 1970s, but here in the U.K. the days are long gone when tobacco companies could promote their products over the airwaves. And that could go for most of the rest of the world, too, if a tough, new treaty is adopted.
Championed by the World Health Organization's outgoing executive director, Gro Harlem Brundtland, the framework convention on tobacco control demands a total ban on cigarette advertising, bigger health warnings on cigarette packets, a crackdown on tobacco smuggling and measures to raise prices. But cigarette companies warned the convention could have seriously negative side effects.
COLIN PROCTOR, BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO: If there are ways to make cigarettes that reduce the risks of smoking, you won't be able to promote them, and that's a problem. Increasing taxes, well, that's been a government policy for centuries. It works if you do it gradually. If you do it excessively, what happens is the legal market disappears and everyone goes to buy smuggled and counterfeited products.
MURIEL: But WHO argues that adopting these measures could save millions of lives. Smoking-related deaths are on the rise. Some estimates expect them to double to 10 million a year over the next two decades.
The argument has convinced many. In a surprise move, the United States health minister, Tommy Thompson, has indicated support for the treaty. Germany, too, which also objects to a blanket ban on advertising on the grounds of freedom of speech, is also likely to sign. JEAN KING, CANCER RESEARCH U.K.: Fortunately, both of those countries are not going to block the treaty. That was what we were concerned about. Generally, again, there is big support, because these are measures that we have been successful, to some degree in the West, in introducing.
(on camera): It's taken four years to hammer out the terms of the terms of the treaty, which needs only a two-thirds majority by World Health Organization members to be adopted. If it is passed, it will be the first global pact committing governments to deal with a public health issue which has already claimed the lives of millions.
Diana Muriel, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
