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PAHO NEWS: Press Releases, Job Vacancies, and Other
Information from the Pan American Health Organization
(PAHO) via the Canadian Society for International Health
(CSIH) http://www.csih.org; Technical Representative in
Canada for PAHO
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Tobacco Control is Global Challenge, WHO Director Says
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Tobacco control is a global challenge and a cultural
struggle against tobacco companies that prey on adolescents
to increase their sales, WHO Director-General Dr. Gro
Harlem Brundtland said in opening the International Policy
Conference on Children and Tobacco on March 18, 1999.
"Tobacco burdens our health systems. It costs taxpayers
money. It hampers the productivity of our economies.
Tobacco obviously provides economic benefits to producers.
But solid economic analysis clearly concludes that the
costs of tobacco exceed by far its estimated economic
benefits," she said.
In the keynote address at the conference, which brought
together legislators, ministers of health, and other
political leaders from more than 30 countries to identify
key policies to cut tobacco use among children, Dr.
Brundtland said: "We have evidence to show that positive
results come from concerted action on several fronts:
tobacco advertising bans, increases in taxation, and a high
level of public awareness."
Dr. Brundtland said world leaders "should really worry"
about the growth in tobacco consumption, adding that "Our
main battlefield on children and tobacco is in that
strange, exhilarating and often confusing landscape called
adolescence. We must enter the discotheques, the schools
and the sports arenas. In many countries, cigarettes are
given out for free on the dance floors. We have to win
these spaces back." Awareness, action, assistance and
alliances are needed to "counter fiction with fact, we have
to dispel ignorance with scientific evidence and we have to
tackle inertia with the simple message that tobacco kills,"
she added.
Governments may face a backlash from decisive anti-tobacco
action, but the political leadership "must be united and
committed to take the battles," she said. Referring to
tobacco production and employment, Dr. Brundtland said, "We
are not attacking those who, by tradition or by lack of
other suitable crops, grow tobacco in their fields. We are
not blaming those thousands who work in tobacco plants
because it is the best - or the only - steady job in their
hometown. We do care about their future livelihood in our
fight against tobacco."
With current smoking patterns, some 500 million people
alive today will eventually be killed by tobacco, she said.
"Worldwide mortality from tobacco is likely to rise from
about 4 million deaths a year in 1998 to about 10 million a
year in 2030," over 70 percent in the developing world.
"By 2020, smoking will cause about one in three of all
adult deaths, up from one in six adult deaths in 1990,"she
said.
"The tobacco epidemic is a communicated disease. It is
communicated through advertising, through the example of
smokers and through the smoke to which non-smokers -
especially children - are exposed. Our job is to immunize
people against this epidemic," she said. To change the
trends, Dr. Brundtland noted, "We need to get smokers to
quit and non-smokers not to pick up the addictive habit."
Dr. Brundtland asked the assembled leaders to act against
tobacco. "Those actions, both personal and official, will
decide if tobacco shall claim new millions of victims in
your home countries. Those actions will help prevent the
cost of treating hundreds of thousands of cancer and heart
disease patients from breaking the back of your health
systems in the coming decades," she said.
For further information contact: Daniel Epstein, tel (202)
974-3459 , fax (202) 974-3143, Office of Public
Information, Pan American Health Organization, email
[log in to unmask] Web: http://www.paho.org
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Invitation to participate in the Leadership Summit and the
planning meeting for The Health Forum's Summit in the Year
2000
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The next Leadership Summit of the Health Forum Summit 2000
will take place in Orlando, Florida, April 29 through May
2, 2000. If there is enough interest, a planning session
will be held on Sunday, April 18, 1999, from 8 to 8:20 am,
before the kickoff of the 1999 Leadership Summit in San
Francisco, which will take place April 17-20, 1999. Please
access the page: http://www.healthforum.com to obtain more
information about this exciting meeting.
The idea for the year 2000 is to gather health futurists
from all over the world, including those forming subgroups
focusing on various themes, for a dinner followed by a day-
long meeting on the last day of the Summit. Clement Bezold,
Director of the Institute for Alternative Futures and
Cristina Puentes-Markides from the Pan American Health
Organization will co-chair the year 2000 event, which is
co-sponsored by Kathryn Johnson, President and CEO of the
Health Forum, American Hospital Association.
To sign up, or for more information, please go to
http://www.paho.org/english/dap/dapihfn.htm
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PAHO Vacancy Notices
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External Relations Officer; Level P.4; Post Number .5899;
Closing Date: 8 April 1999; Duty Station: Washington, D.C.;
Tenure: Two years, first year probationary period;
Division/Program/Office; Office of External Relations (DEC)
Salary Information: Basic Salary: $49,523 at single rate;
Post Adjustment: $9,607 at single rate
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS: Education: A postgraduate degree to
the Master's level in economics, law, public policy,
business administration, international relations, political
sciences, or in one of the health or social sciences.
Experience: Nine years of combined national and
international experience in external relations, resource
mobilization, fundraising, donor organizations, and the
design, review, implementation, and/or evaluation of health
projects. Languages: Very good knowledge of English and
Spanish. Knowledge of a third official language would be
an asset.
For more information, please contact the Pan American
Health Organization / World Health Organization, 525
Twenty-Third Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037 USA
Fax (202) 974-3379; Telephone (202) 974-3396; Vacancy
Hotline: (202) 974-3333; http://www.paho.org
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This document is available, with full formatting and
accents, at http://www.csih.org/paho_ndx.html
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