NZ signs international tobacco control treaty
New Zealand formally signed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) today in Geneva, Switzerland, home of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The former Norwegian prime minister, once a family doctor, had set attainment of a treaty against a scourge that kills some five million people a year as the centrepiece of her four-year term at the head of the United Nations agency.
Countries signing at a special ceremony at WHO's Geneva headquarters, where the pact was approved by 190 nations at a key conference last month, ranged from Brazil, Botswana and Iran to Britain, New Zealand and Spain.
Absent were the United States, where the administration of President George W Bush had opposed parts of the accord, particularly an advertising ban, and Germany and China, both heavy-smoking nations with high revenues from tobacco sales.
Costas Stefanis, Health Minister of current EU president Greece, said the treaty -- the first-ever legally binding global public health pact -- "shows the will of the peoples to go against organised interests, the tobacco companies".
The WHO estimates that about 4.9 million people die each year from tobacco use. If current trends continue, this figure will reach about 10 million per year by 2030, with 70 per cent of those deaths occurring in developing countries.
New Zealand Herald, June 17 2003