Articles

UK tops in tobacco control – again
European Conference on Tobacco or Health (ECToH)

As we approach World No Tobacco Day 2011 with the theme of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the UK still leads the way for the most comprehensive tobacco control measures in Europe.  Luk Joossens, Advocacy Officer at the Association of European Cancer Leagues, presented the latest Tobacco Control Scale to the European Conference on Tobacco or Health (ECToH), held in Amsterdam from 28-30 March 2011. According to the latest ranking, the top five countries are almost similar from that of 2007 except for new-comer Turkey, which occupies fourth position. 

The top five countries (UK, Ireland, Norway, Turkey and Iceland) all have policies on tobacco control including high prices for tobacco products and complete smoking bans, including bars and restaurants. These measures are considered to be the top two of the most effective policies and thus receive the highest scores. Four of these countries recently decided to introduce legislation to ban the display of tobacco products at the point-of-sale. As in the 2007 scale, the UK scores best in all six categories for comprehensive and cost effective tobacco control policies.   The five countries with the lowest scores were Austria, Greece, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

The researchers, Martin Raw and Luk Joosens, also noticed a decline in financial resources in tobacco control and fear that this trend will continue in the near future.  Lies van Gennip, from STIVORO the Dutch tobacco control agency that hosted the conference said, ‘Every year more than 650,000 people in the EU countries die as a result of tobacco consumption, with second-hand smoke killing about 80,000 people every year. Smoking is the main cause of non-communicable diseases.  We hope that ECToH will inspire European countries to implement a comprehensive tobacco control policy following the UK’s example. The World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) recommends effective measures that should be implemented’. 

Click image for a larger view

The UK was also well represented amongst the keynote speakers.  Professors Anna Gilmore and Amanda Amos both part of the UK Tobacco Control Research Centre, presented two of the six plenary sessions to packed audiences at the conference.  According to Anna Gilmore, the influence of the tobacco industry on European policy extends much further than is assumed.   Anna Gilmore has discovered that tobacco manufacturers have ensured that they are involved in deciding the direction of public health policy in the EU and that their business interests are considered first when far-reaching health plans are being made. For example, thanks to the British American Tobacco (BAT) lobby, all decisions taken in the EU relating to public health must first be tested against their economic impact. In addition, the tobacco industry has succeeded in having health decisions postponed or abandoned.  According to Professor Gilmore the tobacco industry ensured that more than 82,000 responses were received during the consultation for a parliamentary bill about, amongst other things, more graphic warnings on tobacco packaging. For such a consultation 500 responses would normally be received. The enormous volume of responses has now resulted in the decision being postponed for more than a year.

Amanda Amos discussed ‘Reaching the hard to reach disadvantaged populations’.  Amanda set out the strong and increasing relationship between smoking and inequalities throughout Europe.    In many countries in Europe, disadvantaged young people are more likely to start smoking and less likely to quit than adults.  They are also more exposed to secondhand smoke.  Professor Amos detailed the evidence that is available to help policy makers take action to reduce smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke as well as highlighting the gaps in research and new innovative interventions that are not yet published. 

On the last day of the conference, Twan Huys a Dutch journalist and media presenter chaired two controversial and lively plenary sessions.  The first presented European case studies illustrating how the tobacco industry intimidates European Ministers of Health and discussed  tobacco industry interference in policy and science.    They also linked how tobacco and alcohol industries employ similar tactics.  Anna Gilmore was one of the panel of five experts.   The second session looked at successful tobacco control strategies from California, Canada, Australia and UK and how these can help to shape the future.  Professor Robert West represented the UK experience. 

And talking of Robert West, at the conference dinner, Chain of Fools, a Dutch rock band got everyone up dancing.  Much to everyone’s delight they invited Robert to get up and join them on lead guitar for a selection of great rock songs.   To see him strutting his stuff you can see the ECToH section of the photographer’s website:   http://www.paulvanwijngaarden.nl/klanten/ectoh  Check out the ‘Dinner’ selection.   For to see a selection of the presentations see the ECToH website:  http://ectoh.org/
For information on World No Tobacco Day website: http://www.who.int/tobacco/en/
The next European conference is be held in Istanbul in 2013.