Global survey cites urgent need for policy change on tobacco control

MANILA, Philippines – The world’s largest survey of tobacco use in 16 mostly low- and middle-income countries, including the Philippines, had indicated the “urgent need for policy change” on tobacco control.

Lead author Gary Giovino, of the University at Buffalo School of Public Health and Health professions in New York, said the survey “demonstrates powerful pro-tobacco forces (are) still at work.”

“Governments around the world need to start giving economic and regulatory advantages to agricultural products that promote health instead of to products like tobacco that kill people,” Giovino noted.

In a statement, Giovino said the survey paints “a disturbing picture of global tobacco use influenced by powerful and manipulative pro-tobacco forces.”

He added that while 100 million lives have already been lost prematurely to tobacco use in the last century, the World Health Organization had estimated that if the current trend continues, “the number of preventable, premature deaths in this century will be far greater.”

“In the absence of effective actions, about one billion people worldwide will die prematurely in the next century from tobacco use…. and most of those deaths, and the healthcare and economic costs that come with them, will be borne by lower- and middle-income countries,” claimed Giovino, who also served as former chief of epidemiology in the Office on Smoking and Health at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The survey was based on the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) conducted in Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay and Vietnam from 2008 to 2010.

Data from some 200,000 respondents in the United States and United Kingdom were also included in the survey.

The survey showed that 49 percent of men and 11 percent of women in GATS countries used tobacco. Although women’s tobacco use rates remain low, women are beginning to smoke as early as men, at around 17 years of age.

And while tobacco is consumed in various ways, from chewing tobacco and snuff to water pipes and hand-rolled bidis, 64 percent of respondents smoked manufactured cigarettes.

“Quit ratios were highest in the US and UK as well as in Brazil and Uruguay, where tobacco control activities are strongest. They are lowest in China, India, Russia and Egypt,” the research revealed.

Giovino said the “data reflects industry efforts to promote tobacco use.”

“These include marketing and mass media campaigns by companies that make smoking seem glamorous, especially for women. The industry’s marketing efforts also equate tobacco use with Western themes, such as freedom and gender equality,” he added.

Industry efforts, she said, also influence governments to back off on anti-tobacco regulations. In some countries, government even owns the tobacco industry.

“China National Tobacco, for example, which is owned by the Chinese government, sponsors dozens of elementary schools, where students are subjected to pro-tobacco propaganda. Some messages even equate tobacco use with academic success. I find that mind-boggling,” he maintained.

The survey showed that high consumption of manufactured cigarettes was traced to “sophisticated technological manipulation.”

“These products are technologically designed to mask harshness, provide particular taste sensations and increase nicotine delivery,” the research stated.

The survey had pushed for deliberate allocation of more resources to fully implement tobacco control strategies like the strengthening of monitoring system for tobacco use, offer help to those who want to quit smoking, warn people on the danger of smoking and use of graphic health warnings.

The research was funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Brazilian and Indian governments and was published in a recent issue of The Lancet.

According to Anthony Leachon, a consultant for non-communicable diseases at the Department of Health, Lancet is “an international reputable publication that only publishes best research work in the world.”

“It is an honor for a researcher if Lancet will publish a research work because it will be reviewed by your peers,” Leachon added.