Courier-Journal - Health groups back tobacco treaty

By James R. Carroll

WASHINGTON — With legislation to strengthen tobacco regulation now signed into law, public health groups are pushing for the Senate to ratify a treaty on tobacco control that has languished for five years.

Though the United States signed the treaty in May 2004, President George W. Bush never submitted it for approval by the Senate, the final step in the process.

The treaty requires a host of anti-smoking measures by the 164 signing nations. And it seeks to attack global issues such as cross-border advertising and tobacco smuggling.

Supporters say it is time for the Senate to act.

"There's no excuse, we really should," Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said in an interview in the White House Rose Garden after President Barack Obama signed the new law that allows the federal Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products.

Opponents, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., believe American participation in the treaty is unnecessary.

"The decision to regulate tobacco has been made by elected members of Congress and the president," said Robert Steurer, spokesman for McConnell, who also opposed the FDA legislation.
The global treaty threatens the future of tobacco growers in Kentucky and other states, as well as around the world, said Roger Quarles, president of the Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association.

"It's basically a pathway to eradicate tobacco consumption and production throughout the entire world," said Quarles, who is also president of the International Tobacco Growers Association.

Carl Duckworth, spokesman for the State Department, did not respond to a request for comment.

About 1.3 billion people around the world smoke, according to the International Union Against Cancer. Tobacco-related diseases are projected to kill about 150 million people worldwide between 2000 and 2024 unless smoking rates are reduced, the Geneva-based organization says.
The tobacco treaty took effect for the nations that ratified it in February 2005. It is the first treaty negotiated under the World Health Organization.

The treaty says its objective "is to protect present and future generations from the devastating health, social, environmental and economic consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke."

All the nations that ratified the treaty are parties to discussions and negotiations over its implementation.

According to the World Health Organization, the U.S. is among 17 nations that have yet to approve the treaty. Other holdouts include Argentina, Cuba, the Czech Republic, Haiti, Morocco and Switzerland.

China, Russia, India, Japan, most nations of the European Union and the other large nations in Asia, Africa and South America have approved the treaty.

"I've been working in this for a long, long time on an international basis, and it's been a source of embarrassment to me that many countries were far ahead of the United States in terms of tobacco control and regulation," Durbin said. "I think that we now have a chance to at least stand up and show some leadership with the passage and (Obama's) signature on this bill. So I think we're in a better position now than we've ever been."

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., one of the authors of the FDA regulation law, said the treaty will be another tool in the public health community's arsenal to fight the most preventable cause of death and disease.

"I think it's very important," he said in an interview while leaving the Rose Garden ceremony. "The U.S. government has officially endorsed (the treaty), and we have got to ratify it."

The federal law Obama signed contains many provisions in the international treaty, including requirements for larger and more graphic warnings on cigarette packs, a ban on the use of "light" and "low-tar" designations on cigarettes and restrictions on tobacco advertising.

The treaty also seeks to restrict or ban the sale of tax-free and duty-free tobacco products to international travelers; impose smoking bans in workplaces, public transportation and other public places; promote economic alternatives for tobacco growers, industry workers and sellers; and set up international cooperation to ban cross-border advertising of tobacco products.

Smuggling of cigarettes, also covered in the treaty, is getting a lot of international attention. But the United States is on the outside looking in, said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

"There have been intense negotiations going on for more than a year as part of the treaty to curtail the illicit trade in cross-border tobacco smuggling," Myers said. "These negotiations directly impact the United States, and we have not been a part of the negotiations."

But tobacco-state senators, including McConnell and Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., are going to fight approval of the treaty.

Bunning said in a statement that it is similar to the FDA law, and he opposes it "because it will place unnecessary mandates and expenses on our small and honest farmers who rely on tobacco to pay their bills."

Obama may have been hinting at his intentions on the treaty in some of his remarks before signing the federal tobacco regulation bill.

"We know that, even with the passage of this legislation, our work to protect our children and improve the public's health is not complete," the president said.

"And so the United States will continue to work with the World Health Organization and other nations to fight this epidemic on a global basis."

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