Tobacco Problem

Tobacco Advertising Treaty Could Bring Big Changes in Cambodia

Among other features, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control would require countries to regulate tobacco advertising, forbid its sale to children, raise taxes on tobacco to keep it out of children's hands and require warning labels on tobacco products. The 191 members of the World Health Organization, which drafted the treaty, are expected to ratify it by May 2003, officials say. The question of advertising has been the hottest item of the framework, especially here in Cambodia, and it has reopened an old debate on whether or not smoking has a place in society.

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Cambodia loses 38 million U.S. dollars and over 70,000 lives each year due to cigarette smoking, according to a recent survey jointly conducted by Ministry of Health and World Health Organization. From 1996 to 2006, 82 percent of rural men, 62 percent of urban dwellers, and 82 percent of youth nationwide were cigarette smokers, said the survey. Meanwhile, 54 percent of men and seven percent of women in Cambodia were cigarette smokers, it added. "The danger of cigarette smoking is not as cruel as that of rampant disease like cholera, but it goes into our body slowly, destroys our health and finally leads to death," Lim Thai Pheang, president of the Institute of Public Health of Cambodia, was quoted by local media as saying.

Over 90 percent interviewers supported the government's adoption of a law on tobacco control, according to the survey of a sample of 144 staff members from the ministries of Education, Youth and Sport, Women's Affairs, and Defense across the country.

• Tobacco control policy to receive enormous support in Cambodia Jump to full article: People's Daily (cn), 2007-05-30Author: Source: Xinhua Intro: A recent survey by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) showed that a tobacco control policy will receive enormous support in Cambodia, local media said on Wednesday. Over 90 percent interviewers supported the government's adoption of a law on tobacco control, according to the survey of a sample of 144 staff members from the ministries of Education, Youth and Sport, Women's Affairs, and Defense across the country. > It also found that more than 96 percent of the respondents wanted a ban on cigarette advertising, reported Cambodian daily newspaper the Koh Santepheap. The survey aimed to encourage the government to push for an immediate adoption of such a law, reported another Cambodian daily newspaper the Kampuchea Thmey.

Garment, timber, tobacco, agro-industry and tourism are the fastest growing businesses in Cambodia.  There are two hundred factories producing for the American and European markets. British American Tobacco has been developing a cigarette brand for the Cambodians and is growing tobacco leaves for export.