The latest victim of tobacco trade sanctions

Article Abstract:

While the perception of Bangkok is of a modern, industrialized city, the rest of Thailand remains an impoverished third world agricultural country. Daily earnings of a construction worker, toiling seven days a week, amount to $3.50 a day. Only six years of education are mandatory, and only 30 percent of individuals requiring medical attention receive it. Many Thai smoke, and the number of tobacco-related illnesses has been increasing. Lung cancer is the most frequent form of cancer in males, responsible for 20 percent of cancer cases. A recent study of mortality in a tobacco growing district revealed there were 22.5 lung cancer deaths for every 100,000 inhabitants. The dangers of smoking are not as widely known as in the United States, where 65 percent of men over 20 smoke, and 6 percent of women smoke. The rates have declined approximately 0.5 percent a year since 1976, when the Surgeon General's report on the dangers of smoking was published. Now in an apparent move to counter declining markets at home, American tobacco interests have pushed to enter the Asian market. While currently all cigarettes legally distributed in Thailand are produced by a state-owned monopoly, there is fear that United States Trade Acts will encourage American companies to insist on entering the market with advertising. Thais often see products from the West as glamorous, and there is fear that an American presence will also encourage the state-owned monopoly to begin advertising in an attempt to compete. The author believes that in the interests of health, the United States should stop using tobacco exports as a lever for opening foreign markets. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Social aspects, Thailand, Distribution, Tobacco industry, International trade regulation

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A retreat in the tobacco war

Article Abstract:

At the same time that Surgeon General Antonia Novello was declaring war on the tobacco industry, one of the most successful tobacco-control programs in the county was under the axe. In 1989, California voters approved an increase in the cigarette tax to fund anti-tobacco media advertisements and research on diseases caused by tobacco use. But Governor Pete Wilson decided to eliminate the program, citing the state's budget deficit. The local American Lung Association chapter promptly sued, and a state Superior Court judge ordered the state to restore the program's funds. But a bill pending in the legislature would chip away at the funding every year, diverting the money to pay for health care. This may actually be illegal, since the original initiative can not be modified through the legislature. Wilson should raise revenues by raising the cigarette tax, which is much lower in the US than in other countries.

Editorial, Political aspects, Antismoking movement, Media coverage, Cigarettes

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