Human behavior

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised its estimate of the number of deaths caused by smoking every year from 4.2 million to 4.9 million. The announcement came ahead of the resumption of talks on a global treaty to curb smoking, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), in Geneva today. WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland said that when the process was started, tobacco killed four million people every year. That figure now stands at 4.9 million people per year. The talks between more than 120 ofthe WHO's member states began in October 2000. They are aimed at setting up global rules to curb advertising, marketing and sales of tobacco products by the middle of next year. A draft version of the treaty advocates the elimination of tobacco advertising and sponsorship worldwide. It would also outlaw labelling such as low tar or light on cigarette packs, which the WHO regards as misleading. The proposals call for the eventual prohibition of duty-free sales of tobacco, measures to stop smuggling, and aim to phase out subsidies for tobacco farming and manufacturing. (Source: SAPA-AFP, 11 October 2002)

Regardless of the legislation making it illegal to sell cigarettes to people under the age of 16, shop owners do a roaring trade among school pupils. A survey conducted by the Cancer Association of South Africa found that one fifth of SA children try smoking before the age of 10. One in every four youths aged between 13 and 15 are addicted to cigarettes. Not only may shop owners not sell tobacco products to people younger than 16, they must also have a specific message at the point of sale. The Cancer Association's statistics state that the smoking population aged 15 years and up consumed 1 422 million packs of cigarettes in 1999, and only 1 333 million in 2000. Yet the smoking population grew by 500 000 in that time. In what is believed to be a first for South Africa, Vendomatic, a Cape Town manufacturer and national operator of vending machines, is introducing a machine that will help prevent the sale of cigarettes to children. The company has invested more than R1-million in the design and production of their activator machine. The machine can only be activated with the use of a special token the proprietor of an establishment will sell over the counter. (Source: Cape Argus, 13 August 2002)

A recent study conducted among a sample size community of 90 pharmacists in the Western Cape indicates that over half of them - 60 percent - diagnose and treat sexually transmitted infections. This, despite the fact that legislation forbids pharmacists - as dispensers of medication from treating disease as they are not trained to do so. Kim Ward is the researcher who carried out the study. In this report she tells Khopotso Bodibe that even though pharmacists are not trained to treat STIs, people opt for their services because it is affordable and there are seldom long queues.

Smoking contributes to almost one in 10 of all adult deaths in South Africa, with more smokers dying of tuberculosis (TB) and lung-related disease than of cancer. Margaret Urgan, study co-ordinator of the Cancer Epidemiology Research Group in Johannesburg, gave these statistics to the 14th conference of the Africa region of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease in Durban. Urgan said that today's smoker predetermined his premature death 30 or 40 years down the line. Urgan said South Africa had made tremendous strides in eliminating smoking. However, chewing tobacco remained a problem, especially among rural women. The co-ordinator of the International Non-Governmental Coalition Against Tobacco, said that the number of tobacco farmers in South Africa had fallen from nearly 2 000 in 1985 to 600 in 2001. The director of the tobacco division of the union, Dr Karen Slama, said that international tobacco companies were spending R20 billion in two weeks on advertising in the United States. This was roughly the same amount that the Global Fund was giving this year to needy countries to fight diseases such as TB, malaria and AIDS. She said the tobacco industry had a record of subverting, circumventing, ignoring or even changing tobacco control legislation. (Source: The Mercury, 17 June 2002)

Children are heeding health warnings about the dangers associated with cigarette smoking. A national survey of 1 400 South African children, aged between five and eight years, found that most declared they would never smoke. Many complained that it was unhealthy, antisocial and affected personal hygiene. Some of the comments made by the children included: People smoke, drink liquor and get drunk. When they get home, they curse their grandmothers. You'll be sick and you'll die from cancer if you smoke. The survey - which compared answers with a similar survey conducted a few years previously - found that fewer children were experimenting with smoking. Researchers were interested in gauging children's perceptions of smoking in the wake of new South African legislation banning cigarette advertising. (Source: Sunday Times, 9 June 2002)

The Health Department will this year make it a crime to disobey government tobacco regulations the current law is seen as unenforceable - and will extend the advertising and sponsorship ban to alcoholic products. This could hit the wine industry as hard as the tobacco laws hit the tobacco industry - ending for example, TV advertising on wine, beer and spirits. New laws due this year include the National Health Bill, new medicine control regulations and pharmacy regulations, and the Bills to control tobacco products and alcohol products, Parliament's Health Committee was told yesterday. The existing Tobacco Products Control Amendment Act has been thrown out by some courts and is not enforced by the police on the grounds that it does not constitute a criminal offence. However, two youths were last year sentenced to imprisonment when they could not pay fines for smoking in a public place. This year the government proposes to ensure that action can be taken against people who disobey the smoking regulations. Dr Kany Chetty, deputy director-general of the Health Department, said it was intended to implement the tobacco controls, looking at the issues around the sentences and the fines and a more effective monitoring. Francois van der Merwe, chairman and CEO of the Tobacco Institute of SA representing the industry from farmers to cigarette manufacturers, attended yesterday's health committee briefings, He said the Institute had not been fully consulted, and needed to speak with government to ensure that the new laws were reasonable and practicable. The committee was told that the major piece of legislation was the National Health Bill. Public comment closed on February 9 and a revised measure would be presented to Cabinet for approval before it was tabled in Parliament. (Source: The Citizen, 20 February 2002)

Negotiators from the 191 member states of the World Health Organisation (WHO) wrapped up a week of talks here on Wednesday to draw up the world's first public health treaty to curb deaths from smoking with some progress reported. Two new rounds of talks on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control are planned for next year in a bid to complete the treaty by the WHO's desired target of 2003, the WHO said. A source from the UN health body described the latest session as encouraging, with the number of brackets indicating areas still needing agreement in the draft text being largely reduced. However, countries do not agree on many of the more contentious matters including a proposed total ban on tobacco advertising. A coalition of non-governmental organisations said the draft had been strengthened and consolidated during the talks, but there was still strong resistance from countries that host large tobacco companies such as the United States and Japan. Once ratified, it will be the world's first legally binding international treaty on tobacco, which according to WHO figures causes more than four million deaths every year. (Source: SAPA-AFP, 29 November 2001)

Galillee College, the leading management training institute in Israel, will be holding a three week intensive international training program: Health Systems Management - October 17 – November 5, 2001, for health professionals from Developing countries world-wide. The program includes lectures, workshops, study tours to Israel's leading hospitals and medical centers, enabling participants to learn from the Israeli experience, while networking and exchanging knowledge with colleagues from other Developing countries world-wide. A limited number of tuition scholarships are available for candidates who are citizens of a Developing country with at least a first academic degree, proficient in English and with professional experience in the area of Health. A place on the program is based on a first come basis. For more details, visit our web site: Http://www.galilcol.ac.il or contact our International Department, E -mail: International_Department@galilcol.ac.il

The Health Department was seeking legal advice on reports that there was a loophole in the Tobacco Products Control Act that allowed smoking public places. New legislation is supposed to put a blanket ban on smoking in public, and then make exceptions. Health spokeswoman Jo-Anne Collinge issued a short statement on Wednesday evening saying the department had contacted the relevant officials in the Cape Town Metropolitan Council and the Western Cape Police Commissioner's Office. Police in the Western Cape have been told by a legal adviser that a loophole in the anti-smoking law means smokers cannot be prosecuted for lighting up in public places. In an e-mail to station commanders, head of legal services in Cape Town's West Metropole, Senior Superintendent Melville Cloete said the Tobacco Products Control Act forbade smoking in a public place. However, it did not specifically declare it an offence. Cloete said police should therefore be aware that smoking in a public place is not an offence. His opinion follows hot on the heels of the first conviction under the law, of two Port Elizabeth men who served part of a 20-day day sentence when they were unable to pay the R200 fine for smoking in a magistrate's court in the city. (Source: SAPA, 15 August 2001)

The World Congress of Family Doctors will take on the leading cause of death worldwide - tobacco use - when it calls for action against tobacco at their international conference in Durban in May. The World Organisation of Family Doctors (Wonca) will launch its own Global Call to Action on Tobacco at the 16th Wonca World Congress. This initiative will be spearheaded by the co-chairpersons of the Wonca Task Force on Tobacco Cessation, Dr Michael Bolan from Ireland and Dr Rick Botelho from New York. Wonca, representing thousands of family practitioners worldwide, will call on its members to support this initiative. The Wonca task force will establish international and regional networks of family physicians and educators in family medicine at the congress, to ensure that its message reaches all corners of the globe and that its aims are realised. In addition, the task force will run a workshop at the congress to provide training for doctors in a sophisticated, motivational approach to smoking cessation. This approach has been developed from clinical practice, research evidence and a range of theories and models on health behaviour change. (Source: Daily News, 27 March 2001)