US Abstains in the War on Tobacco
By Derrick Z. Jackson
The Boston Globe
Published on Wednesday, March 5, 2003
THE UNITED NATIONS has voted to go war against the world's worst weapon of mass destruction. The United States is against the resolution.
This news passed by with little notice last week. In Geneva, about 170 nations met in an effort to agree on a global treaty on tobacco. Cigarettes, according to the World Health Organization, kill 4 million people a year and will kill 10 million a year by 2030 if current trends continue. Unless there is a war on tobacco, cigarettes will cut short the lives of 500 million of the 6 billion people on earth.
Most of the nations that gathered in Geneva agreed to a final text that will be presented to the WHO in May for adoption. The treaty, called the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, requires nations to implement serious tobacco control programs. It would require cigarette companies to put a health warning that would take up at least 30 percent of the surface of a pack. It would eliminate labeling that misleads smokers to think that a particular ''light'' or ''mild'' cigarette is less harmful than others.
The pact would require signatories to move toward a ban on cigarette advertising within the limits of a nation's laws. Signatories would be required to fund tobacco control programs and consider taxes that reduce smoking. With most of the world ready to fight a chemical weapon that could be lethal for the equivalent of two United States of Americas, WHO's director general, Gro Harlem Brundtland, called the treaty a ''real milestone in the history of global public health.''
The treaty is a real millstone for the United States. The problem is that the evil dictator killing millions is not Saddam Hussein. It is an industry run by madmen holed up in New York skyscrapers and corporate bunkers in Virginia and North Carolina. They have paid handsomely to assure that President Bush will not launch an attack. In the 2002 election cycle, big tobacco gave $6.4 million of its $8.1 million in contributions to Republicans. Philip Morris, the world's biggest cigarette exporter, paid $3.4 million to buy influence, with 80 percent of its contributions going to Republicans or the Republican Party.
So the ink had not even dried on the treaty when the US delegates started making noise that the Bush administration might not sign it. The US health attache in Geneva, David Hohman, said the United States wants the treaty to allow a nation to opt out of provisions it finds objectionable. For the Bush administration, that means just about the whole treaty.
According to news reports, the administration is not happy with the idea of federal funding of antitobacco programs, a ban on free samples, or putting giant health warning on packs. Hohman said called the treaty's provisions a ''complication for our legislative process.''
A few other nations, among them China, Japan, and Germany, where cigarette production or advertising are rampant, have joined the United States in objecting to parts of the treaty. But Washington has been so singleminded in its attempt to sabotage the accord that it was called ''arrogant'' by Thai officials.
American tobacco control activists have even asked that the United States withdraw from Geneva rather than be such a drag on the negotiations. John Seffrin, CEO of the American Cancer Society, said: ''At this critical juncture, the United States government is working methodically to weaken virtually every aspect of this treaty. We call on the US government to observe the first rule of the Hippocratic Oath: Do no harm.''
Last week, referring to Iraq, Bush said: ''The global threat of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction cannot be confronted by one nation alone. . . . A threat to all must be answered by all. High-minded pronouncements against proliferation mean little unless the strongest nations are willing to stand behind them -- and use force if necessary.''
For the world's greatest weapon of mass destruction, Bush would leave the world alone. In a couple of months, the tobacco treaty will be presented to the World Health Assembly. If it is adopted, it will go out for ratification. Only 40 nations need to ratify it for it to go into effect in the countries that approve it. If the Bush administration does not get behind the treaty, it will be every bit as cynical on cigarettes as it accuses Saddam Hussein of being with weapons inspections.
When he needed the United Nations to put pressure on Iraq, Bush complained that UN resolutions ''are being unilaterally subverted by the Iraqi regime.'' By subverting the global resolution against tobacco, the United States is telling the UN to get lost. The United States wants a UN resolution to go to war against a murderous dictator. When the UN wants war against the biggest killer on the planet, the US is AWOL.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company
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