Dear friends

I am on a secondment at the World Health Organization in Geneva and recently
attended a presentation on the report described below. The final question to
the presenter was "Do you think the tobacco industry was successful in
undermining the WHO strategy on tobacco control?" He replied that we only
need observe how the staff composition dedicated to tobacco dropped from 11
to 2 to have the answer. On the other hand, the WHO Convention on Tobacco
Control is a very hopeful development.

So keep on fighting the good fight. The world is looking to Canada now for
leadership on the smuggling debate and legal fight.

Best to all from Geneva.
--
Peggy Edwards
The Alder Group
26 Osborne Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1S 4Z9
(613) 730-0378; Fax (613) 730-0379
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Visit our Website  http://www.aldergroup.com


EXPERT COMMITTEE REPORT ON TOBACCO INDUSTRY DOCUMENTS AND THE WORLD HEALTH
ORGANIZATION

"The documents reveal that tobacco companies viewed WHO [the World Health
Organization] as one of their leading enemies, and that they saw themselves
in abattle against WHO," says the report entitled Tobacco Company Strategies
to Undermine Tobacco Control Activities at the World Health Organization.

In the report's foreword, its authors state that "the documents show further
that the tobacco companies instigated global strategies to discredit and
impedeWHO's ability to carry out its mission. [they] sought to divert
attention from the public health issues, to reduce budgets for the
scientific and policy activities carried out by WHO, to pit other UN
agencies against WHO, to convince developing countries that WHO's tobacco
control programme was carried out. at the expense of the developing world,
to distort the results of important scientific studies on tobacco, and to
discredit WHO as an institution."

The report is available on Internet on the WHO home page http://www.who.int



Peggy Edwards
    Department of Health Promotion/NCD Prevention and Surveillance (HPS)
    Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health cluster (NMH)
    World Health Organization (WHO)
    20 Avenue Appia
    CH 1211 Geneva 27
    Switzerland

    tel: +41 22 791 4367
    fax: +41 22 791 4186
    e-mail: [log in to unmask]
    http://www.who.int/ageing