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Set the record
straight in Uganda!
February 20, 2002
Phillip notes that this signals tough times ahead, as the president has veto powers over any legislation. TAKE ACTION! Phillip is calling on fellow GPTC participants to send short letters to the Monitor newspaper disputing the President's statement and supporting tough tobacco control legislation. Please send emails to: newsroom@monitor.co.ug
, editorial@monitor.co.ug Bcc to: karugaba@globalink.org , awhite@essential.org
Monitor - Wednesday 20th February 2002 PROMOTING TOBACCO Unlike Europeans and Americans who have been ravaged by disease caused by smoking, Africans don't get cancer because they don't swallow cigarette smoke, President Yoweri Museveni has said. This is the second time the president says this in about three years. "We puff it out. That is how my father has smoked for the last 70 years and stayed alive," said the President at a competitiveness conference at International Conference Centre, Saturday. "We used to look at the Europeans swallowing the smoke. Then (we) heard they have a lot of cancer in Europe. I'm not surprised. Why do they swallow the smoke?" said Museveni. "I didn't understand the reason some people smoke; we were looking at Easterners and Indians. They were smoking and swallowing," he said. "I am not promoting smoking. But my father has smoked for a long time, but he has no problem. All the people in western Uganda smoke," the president added. Essential
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