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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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World No Tobacco Day, May 31, 1999
Press Releases
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Major League Baseball Players Come Out Swinging Against
Tobacco Use
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At a United Nations press conference, The Coalition for World No
Tobacco Day unveiled its first major initiative to draw attention
to World No Tobacco Day and the global tobacco epidemic.
Five major league baseball players, Paul O'Neill of the New York
Yankees, Robin Ventura of the New York Mets, Nomar Garciaparra of
the Boston Red Sox, Travis Lee of the Arizona Diamondbacks and
Eric Karros of the Los Angeles Dodgers, participated in a public
service campaign that will air in several ballparks over Memorial
Day weekend and throughout the baseball season. Introducing the
first airing of the public service campaign was Tim McCarver,
broadcast announcer for the New York Yankees and former Major
League All-Star who has agreed not to smoke cigars on World No
Tobacco Day to show his support. According to Robin Ventura, a
five-time Gold Glove winner, his greatest accomplishment is
quitting tobacco and Paul O'Neill, a member of the 1998 World
Series Championship team, is proud to have never started smoking.
The Coalition for World No Tobacco Day is an esteemed group of
non-profit organizations, corporate sponsors and renowned thought
leaders including the Pan American Health Organization, a
recognized arm of the United Nations and the regional office of
the Americas for the World Health Organization, the American
Cancer Society, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and SmithKline
Beecham Consumer Healthcare, who have joined together in the
hopes of wiping out tobacco use. David Kessler, former
commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and dean of the
Yale University School of Medicine, is honorary co-chair of the
Coalition along with John Seffrin, Ph.D., chief executive officer
of the American Cancer Society.
World No Tobacco Day, first observed in 1988, is the only global
event established to raise awareness of the global impact of
tobacco. Recognized worldwide on May 31 as a day to halt all
tobacco use, 1999 marks the first year of widespread initiatives
by the Coalition for World No Tobacco Day.
Consumers and organizations seeking more information about the
Coalition and World No Tobacco Day can log on to the new Web site
at http://www.worldnotobaccoday.com or http://www.wntd.com.
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"Leave the Pack Behind" for World No Tobacco Day 1999
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Pan American Health Organization Director Dr. George A.O. Alleyne
is calling on smokers to quit for good on World No Tobacco Day,
observed this May 31 with a focus on smoking cessation. The
slogan is "Leave the pack behind."
Tobacco is the number one preventable disease in the Americas,
causing more deaths than AIDS, alcohol and drug abuse, traffic
accidents and violence combined. Worldwide, tobacco kills 3
million people a year, and in the Americas, 625,000 persons.
However, if current trends continue, the worldwide figure will
rise to 10 million by the year 2030, half these deaths in
developing nations.
The Pan American Health Organization is involved in tobacco
control activities because in the Americas, about 30 percent of
the adult population smoke, Dr. Alleyne said. Increasing tobacco
consumption is a serious risk factor in Latin America, where lung
cancer, cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseases are
rising.
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Health Ministers Ask Urgent Steps To Protect Children
From Tobacco
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Ministers of Health throughout the Western Hemisphere have agreed
that protecting children and adolescents from tobacco by
regulating advertising and enforcing laws against cigarette sales
to minors is a top priority. This decision is significant in the
context of World No-Tobacco Day, which is observed annually to
draw attention to the health consequences of tobacco use and to
focus on the problems associated with it. On World No-Tobacco
Day, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) calls on all
smokers to abstain for at least 24 hours, as a first step to
abandon this deadly habit.
Tobacco has significant economic implications for Latin America,
according to Dr. Enrique Madrigal, PAHO's tobacco expert. Tobacco
exports earn almost $1 billion a year for Brazil and $5 billion
for the United States. Five countries of the region rank among
the worlds leading producers of unmanufactured tobacco: the U.S.
(2nd), Brazil (4th), Canada (14th), Argentina (15th), and Mexico
(16th). Among cigarette exporters, the U.S. is first in the
world, while Brazil is 6th, Venezuela 16th, Canada 19th, and
Colombia 20th, he said.
In many countries, tobacco use is rising among young people,
while the age of smoking initiation is declining, Dr. Madrigal
noted. The majority of smokers begin while in their teenage years
or earlier. However, if young people do not begin to use tobacco
before the age of 20, they are unlikely to initiate use as
adults, he said.
Some countries, such as Chile, Brazil and Costa Rica, have put in
place municipal decrees and resolutions to establish smoke-free
environments, as well as compulsory health warnings on cigarette
packages, and partial restriction of advertising to impede
targeting of younger age groups, he said.
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Regional Plan to Control Tobacco
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The Pan American Health Organization has been active in
developing a Regional Interagency Plan of Action, designed to
build up advocacy movements, heighten awareness of policy makers
and professional and community leaders in Latin America to put
tobacco control on the agenda of health and public policy
planning.
According to PAHO tobacco expert Dr. Enrique Madrigal, the
American Cancer Society (ACS), the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the
Latin American Coordinating Committee for Tobacco Control
(CLACCTA), and PAHO were all involved in creating the plan.
PAHO activities include dissemination of information such as
bulletins, databases, technical manuals, a special home page on
the Web, and direct technical cooperation for project proposals,
Dr. Madrigal said. Others are provision of public health
guidelines applicable to tobacco control, organization of "World
No Tobacco Day" locally, logistic support for work groups, and
national coalitions, resource mobilization at the local and
international levels, financial and technical support for
workshops and seminars on "tobacco or health"; adequate support
for the development of policies and plans; promotion of research;
and exchange of information among countries.
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The Pan American Health Organization, which also serves as the
Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health
Organization, works to improve the health and raise the living
standards of all people in the Americas.
For further information contact: Daniel Epstein, tel (202) 974-
3459, fax (202) 974-3143, Office of Public Information, email
[log in to unmask], 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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