700 Parties Asking for Tobacco legislation
700 Parties Asking for Tobacco legislation Press Release: Prof. Dr. Somdri Paosawad Date: 4 February 2015 Release date: For Immediate Release Medical and health professionals on behalf of 700 parties met the Minister of the Ministry of Public Health to follow up on progress of the new Tobacco Product Control Act as all parties support this legislation. If it takes longer to pass this act, Thai people and children will lose benefits provided in this act.
Prof. Dr. Somdri Paosawad, president of the National Alliance for a Tobacco Free Thailand said that all parties in society want to meet the need to have new tobacco legislation because they worry about the future of Thai children and do not want to see them made slaves to cigarettes and the tobacco industry. Currently, the Alliance along with members of various networks (700 parties) are waiting for the Cabinet to pass this legislation which later will be considered by a National Scrutinizing Council. “We worry that it will take too much time to pass this legislation so Thailand will lose benefits since the number of male smokers will be sustained at a very high level (40%). A representative of the World Lung Foundation indicated that the number of male smokers in Thailand is currently critical. So, we request the Minister of the Ministry of Public Health to urgently follow up on this issue as nearly 2 million Thai children are cigarette smokers and more are becoming clients of tobacco companies. This has happened because the current tobacco product control legislation, which has been used for over 20 years, has gaps”.
Prof. Dr. Somdri also said that it was necessary to address the causes of the problem. The causes of this problem are not like those of other diseases, not mosquitoes or insects, but from international tobacco companies. Tobacco companies utilize legal loopholes to stimulate and induce new initial smokers, and to retain present smokers or new initial smokers to carry on smoking. The draft of the new Tobacco Product Control Act developed by the Ministry of Public Health works to fill gaps in the current legislation which has been used for several decades, especially in the area of prohibiting cigarette promotion. Moreover, this new legislation is an important measure to reduce social burdens caused by smoking which currently the government and Thai people have to bear through the cost of health care caused by cigarette smoking which is over 50,000 million baht annually.
Dr. Saranya Benjakul, professor from the Faculty of Public Health, Mahidol University, revealed that Thailand was able to reduce the number of cigarette smokers by about 30,000 per year on average (during the last 20 years). However, if Thailand preferred to reduce the number of cigarette smokers to 30% by 2025 so as to reduce the number of patients with chronic diseases caused by cigarette smoking according to the National Resolution 2011, Thailand needs to work 3 times harder in order to reduce the number by 100,000 smokers per year. The forecast of smoking rate for Thai people from 2011 to 2025 indicates that in the next 15 years, the percent of cigarette smoking in Thai people would be 17.5% (or 10.5 million smokers) according to the trend seen between 1991 and 2011. If Thailand is to succeed in achieving the global target for reducing cigarette smoking, Thailand must bring cigarette smoking to 15.0% (or 9.0 million smokers) by 2025.
To request additional information, please contact:
Prof. Dr. Somdri Paosawad Tel. 081-821-4593 / Dr. Saranya Benjakul 081-830-3790
