A strategy to fight tobacco use together
The fight against tobacco in the region just got stronger. Some 50 “tobacco managers” from the South-East Asian Region have come together in Thimphu for the first time and drafted a strategy to strengthen its battle against tobacco use, the leading cause of preventable deaths in the region.
While all 11 SEAR countries have their own strategies, the draft strategy would guide the countries at a broader level.
The aim of this strategy, said tobacco managers is to improve health and social outcomes by reducing morbidity, mortality and harmful economic and social consequences of all forms of tobacco.
WHO’s programme Manager Dr Armando Peruga said the regional strategy is targeted at not only setting national targets but also collaborating mechanism across all countries as one county can learn from another and get assistance from the other on specific issues.
India, he said, has done very well at controlling tobacco imagery in films and television while Thailand has done well on implementing smoke free environments. “The strategy is agreed upon by all member countries to work towards the same direction,” he said.
“One of the common agreements in this dialogue is the commitment to be a smoke free country by fulfilling all the points of the treaty” he said.
He also said that Bhutan has come a long way to be smoke free. “The challenge for any country including Bhutan is not related to where you get your tobacco but whether you smoke it,” he said.
Tobacco industries in Thailand, India and Bangladesh are very strong, the manager pointed out. “Creating this fire wall between the government, the decision makers and the tobacco industries is certainly a challenge,” he said.
At the next meeting, the countries will approve a protocol to prevent illicit trade. In order for Bhutan to prevent illicit trade, it has to collaborate with other countries, the participants said.
The protocol will allow establishing collaborations on customs controls and establish the track and tracing system. “The packages will have a way to be tracked from the factory all the way to the market,” participants said. “Some times it disappears into the black-market so if a country has a very strict control from the very start, one can immediately detect when and where it is going out of the legal mechanism.”
Bhutan Narcotic Control Agency’s legal officer Sonam Tshering said collaborating with the other countries would benefit the country. “ In terms of technical support and help us have more comprehensive laws,” he said.
Globally, tobacco use kills nearly six million people annually while the toll death is over 1.2 million in the SEA region.
“Our region has about 250 million smokers and nearly the same number of smokeless tobacco users,” regional director Dr Samlee Plianbangchang said. “It is a global urgency that it must be put under complete control.”
By Namgay Tshoki
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