Health
professionals call upon policy makers world wide to protect our tobacco control
policies from the lethal interference of the tobacco industry in public health
matters. Tobacco
industry interference in government decisions has been recognised by the World Health
Organisation as one of the greatest barriers to effectively protect people
against the health threats posed by tobacco products.
On the occasion of
this years’ World No Tobacco day, more than 40.000 health organisations and individual
health professionals from 60 countries have pledged their personal and
organisational engagement to support strong tobacco control measures world wide. Health Organisations have demonstrated their
organisations’ commitment to implement a tobacco free policy by signing the TFU PACT. Individual Health
Professionals have shown their personal engagement to help people stop tobacco
consumption by signing the TFU
CHARTER . Together they support
a petition in which governments and policy makers world wide are
called upon to step up their efforts in
the fight against tobacco related death and disease.
The Framework Convention
on Tobacco Control sets a global framework to
reduce tobacco related death and disease to prevent tobacco consumption and to
protect people from the harmful effects of tobacco use in all its form. On World No Tobacco Day 2012, 175 UN countries (accounting for nearly 90% of the global population) have
ratified the WHO
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
Health professionals can not accept that effective implementation of the
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is hindered through interference of economic
players whose goal is to maximise profit through the dissemination of death and
disease.
Therefore, health professionals urge
Governments to take immediate action to suspend participation of
representatives of the tobacco industry and related front organisations from
the development, implementation and financing of public health policy measures.
Furthermore, tobacco control legislation must be protected and prioritised in
international trade agreements and investment laws. Health professionals world
wide consider it a scandal that the tobacco industry still has the possibility
to
interfere with countries’ decision
making process in matters of public health. It is simply outrageous that the
tobacco industry can take Australia and
Uruguay to court because of introducing better health protection measures. All Governments, and especially those of the
Netherlands, Namibia, Philippines, Solomon Islands and Panama, are called upon
to immediately exclude the tobacco industry from any decision making process
relating to health issues and to adopt strict transparency criteria in any
consultation processes!
It is only through a concerted effort of
policy makers, researchers and practitioners together that this man-made
epidemic can be stopped!
The TFU
campaign "Health professionals
for a Tobacco Free World" is a collaborative effort of the
International Network of Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services (HPH) and the ENSH - Global Network of Tobacco Free
Health Care Services.
