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GPTC
BULLETIN
~ March 2002 ~
Contents:
1. Welcome to new GPTC participants
2. Congratulations to new global partnerships
3. Global partners take ACTION!
a) Ghana - Illinois (USA)
b) Malaysia - New Hampshire (USA)
c) Nigeria - Colorado (USA)
d) Romania - Maryland (USA)
e) Uganda - Arizona (USA)
f) Vietnam - Colorado (USA)
4. GPTC regional networking & collaboration
a) Minnesota - Tobacco-free soccer
and much more!
b) New York - Reality Check goes Global
c) Eastern Europe - GPTC activities
at ECTOH
d) AZ's Tobacco Talk "visits"
Ukraine
5. Miscellaneous odds & ends
a) Groups interested in networking
b) Witold Zatonski profiled in Baltimore
Sun
c) If the earth's population was a
small community of 100 people...
For previous bulletins see:
http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/update/
1) WELCOME NEW GPTC PARTICIPANTS!
Groups that signed up since the last bulletin:
- Escuela Nacional de Salud Publica Ministerio de Salud Publica (Cuba)
- Liga Colombiana Contra El Cancer (Colombia)
- Voluntary Organisation in Interest of Consumer Education (VOICE)(India)
- Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria (ERA/FoEN)
- Escuela de Odontologia Universidad de Puerto Rico
- Roxbury Comprehensive Community Health Center (USA - MA)
2) CONGRATULATIONS TO NEW
GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS!
- sous-secteur Jean Kraft (Algeria)
Tobacco Prevention & Control Program, New Hampshire Dept. of Health
&Human Services (USA)
- SOS Tabagisme (Niger)
Action on Smoking or Health (USA - DC)
- People Against Drug Dependence & Ignorance (PADDI) (Nigeria)
Denver Public Health (Felicia Aniniba) (USA - CO)
- Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria (ERA/FoEN)
American Lung Association of New York State (USA - NY)
- Dhaka Ahsania Mission (Bangladesh)
American Heart Association (USA - FL)
- Adolescent Medical Centre (AMC) (Hong Kong, China)
American Lung Assocation of Eastern Missouri (USA - MO)
- HRIDAY (India)
New York State Dept of Health Tobacco Control Program (USA - NY)
- Nepal Anuvrat Samiti (Nepal)
Jennifer Wieczorek (Denver Public Health) (USA - DC)
- Alcohol & Drug Information Centre (Sri Lanka)
Target Market (USA - MN)
Matched with CA partners through the San Francisco Tobacco Free Project:
- Kharkiv National University (Ukraine)
- INGCAT Task Force (South East Asia) (India)
- Interinstitutional Committee Against Tobacco (Ecuador)
3) GLOBAL PARTNERS TAKE
ACTION!
Here is a sampling of the projects that various global partners are working
on together:
GHANA - ILLINOIS
(USA): WORLD NO TOBACCO DAY VIDEO
Ayo Maat of BNICEH (USA) and Thomas Gyimah-Mensah of the Environment and
Development Association of Ghana held a conference call to discuss how
the two organizations might collaborate on World No Tobacco Day solidarity
events. Ayo would like Thomas to videotape a "tour" of tobacco
advertising in his community, that BNICEH could air on public access television
in Chicago and at WNTD events. For more info: <ayomaat@yahoo.com>,
<mensahtg@yahoo.com>
MALAYSIA - NEW
HAMPSHIRE (USA): ADVERTISING DISPLAY
Abdul Wahab Abdul Harris of the Fresh Breath Club (Malaysia) recently
sent examples of tobacco advertising and cigarette packs to Mary Cook
of Youth 2 Youth (USA). Youth 2 Youth plans to incorporate them into a
display. The partners are also planning a conference call to discuss joint
actions. For more info: <cairel_sofwan@yahoo.com>,
<m.cook@ci.dover.nh.us>
NIGERIA - COLORADO
(USA): INFORMATION SHARING
Felicia Aniniba and colleagues at Denver Health (USA) held a conference
call with Eze Eluchie of PADDI (Nigeria). Eze shared information about
PADDI's petition campaign, lecture series and other advocacy work, as
well as an overview of current local and national tobacco control legislation
in his country. Eze said that the two main tobacco companies in Nigeria,
British American Tobacco and Philip Morris, effectively target young people
through concert sponsorships. As a result, the starting age for smokers
is getting lower and lower -- as young as primary school (9-10 years).
Single cigarettes cost just pennies, and kids often buy cigarettes for
their parents. PADDI hopes that legislation will be passed requiring cigarettes
to be sold by the pack. PADDI plans to organize a rally & press conference
for World No Tobacco Day and asked that Denver Health send messages of
support. Denver Health will share articles from the journal Tobacco Control
(as PADDI has difficulties accessing it online) and copies of various
tobacco control videos. And a copy of a video that PADDI prepared for
FL's SWAT without Borders Summit (a tour of tobacco billboards in Lagos)
will be sent to Denver Public Health. The Denver group hopes that the
partnership with PADDI will help them mobilize more support for tobacco
control initiatives within their local African American community. For
more info: <FAniniba@dhha.org>,
<paddingr@yahoo.com>
ROMANIA - MARYLAND
(USA): INFORMATION SHARING
Mark Breaux and Deirdre Smith of Smokefree Maryland (USA) held a conference
call with Cornel Radu of Aer Pur (Romania). Cornel is working hard to
get more doctors to take an activist role. The problem is that many doctors
smoke! He has trained several pneumologists and will next target pediatricians
and cardiologists. So far Aer Pur has helped two hospitals go smokefree.
Aer Pur's activities are, however, hampered by a lack of funding. Smokefree
Maryland plans to hold a fundraiser to provide some basic assistance.
Deirdre added Cornel to Smokefree Maryland's listserv to keep him up-to-date
on their activities. Likewise, Cornel urged Smokefree Maryland to submit
information on smokefree issues to his website. The partners will also
exchange materials, e.g. guidelines for doctors, tobacco advertisements
etc. For more info: <mbreaux@medchi.org>,
<dsmith@medchi.org>,
<c_radu@hotmail.com>
UGANDA - ARIZONA
(USA): LOCAL MEDIA COVERAGE
A local newspaper reported on Barbara Bruce (Navajo County Tobacco Control
& Prevention program, USA) being a guest on her Ugandan partner's
live morning talk radio show. To read the article see: http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/media/azug020205.jpg.
VIETNAM - COLORADO
(USA): PHYSICIAN SURVEYS, 2nd HAND SMOKE, ECONOMICS OF TOBACCO CONTROL
Bonnie Mapes and colleagues of Denver Public Health (USA) and Mai Anh
Hoang of PATH Canada (Vietnam) held a conference call to brainstorm ways
they might collaborate. Vietnamese make up the largest proportion of the
Asian-American population in Denver. Mai shared information from a recent
[rural] community and health provider survey, which found that male health
providers were more likely to smoke than males in the general population
(42.7% vs. 37.7%). The groups plan to share physician surveys and tobacco
training guides for healthcare providers. PATH Canada's survey also found
that 82.5% of smokers smoke arounds others at home. They are planning
a mass media campaign via loudspeakers to address the problem. Denver
Health is also kicking off a 2nd hand smoke campaign and the two groups
plan to share ideas for their respective campaigns. Both groups are also
interested in investigating the economics of tobacco, e.g. how money spent
on tobacco might otherwise be spent (food, education, healthcare etc),
as Denver Health works with many low-income communities and tobacco use
is an important "development" issue in Vietnam. Mai sent a copy
of PATH Canada's "Hungry for Tobacco" report [from Bangladesh]
to Bonnie. For more info: <bmapes@dhha.org>,
<pathcan@netnam.org.vn>
WANT
TO SET UP A CONFERENCE CALL WITH YOUR GLOBAL PARTNER? NEED IDEAS FOR A
JOINT PROJECT IDEA? Contact Essential Action <tobacco@essential.org>
4) REGIONAL GPTC ACTIVITIES/COLLABORATION
a) Minnesota - Tobacco-free
Soccer and much more!
The state of Minnesota has the highest concentration of GPTC participants
in the U.S. -- and they are all based in the Twin Cities. On February
28th and March 21st, group GPTC meetings were held to
brainstorm collective local-global campaigns. The most popular idea: collaborating
on the upcoming international youth soccer cup held in MN (July). The
Cup draws 700-800 teams from 25 countries around the world and an estimated
200,000 spectators. The Association for Nonsmokers Rights - MN is in charge
of making it a "tobacco-free" event. MN groups plan to put together
an exhibit of tobacco advertising and sports sponsorship from around the
world and to promote ways to take action, e.g. a international petition/letter
writing campaign relevant to tobacco and sports. For more info contact:
Ellie Watkins <elliew@mn.rr.com>
MN groups were also
enthusiastic about organizing a workshop to educate local media about
international tobacco control issues and their relevance to MN, a state
with a large immigrant population. Other joint projects planned: creating
a traveling exhibit about international tobacco control issues to display
at various community events and to motivate people to take action; collective
sign-on letters and press releases to local media about local-global tobacco
control issues; and conducting a local-global session at an upcoming MN
tobacco control conference. Target Market, a statewide youth program that
targets the tobacco industry, also noted that they have incorporated outrageous
tobacco industry examples from abroad into their "Manipulation 101"
presentation. Tom Laventure, who attended the first meeting wrote an article
about it for the Asian American Press:
http://www.aapress.com/webmar8/com-smokes.html
For more info: <tobacco@essential.org>
b) New York - Reality Check
Goes Global!
Reality Check, New York State Dept. of Health Tobacco Control Programs
statewide youth empowerment program, has made a commitment to take on
the tobacco industry at home and abroad! The high school students have
formed an International Action Committee and plan to focus on tobacco
and movies, the use of U.S. imagery in tobacco advertising abroad, and
international letter writing campaigns, in partnership with groups in
India and Albania.
On March 24th, Essential
Action conducted a training on international tobacco issues for the group's
statewide board meeting that drew youth and adult coordinators from all
of the state's 60+ counties. The training covered: what internal tobacco
industry documents say about the industry's expansion into low-income
country markets; outrageous examples of tobacco marketing and political
influence around the world; how the tobacco industry is targeting people
in low-income countries, particularly youth and women; the use of U.S.
symbols, scenes, and icons to market tobacco abroad; tobacco and movies;
economics of tobacco in low-income countries (e.g. how much food could
a pack of Marlboros buy?); Philip Morris's worldwide financial prowess
vs. scant resources for international tobacco control; tobacco's global
toll; the relationship between tobacco environment, labor rights, trade;
examples of how youth advocates abroad are resisting Big Tobacco; Top
ten reasons international tobacco control is relevant to the New York;
and a case study of the tobacco industry's activities in Senegal, West
Africa. Afterwards, Reality Check members brainstormed dozens of ways
that counties could take action. For more information: Alison Rhodes-Devey
<aar04@health.state.ny.us>
or <tobacco@essential.org>
c) Eastern Europe - GPTC
activities at ECTOH
Are you based in Eastern/Central Europe or the Newly Independent States
(former Soviet Union) -- or do you have a global partner in this region?
Contact Essential Action for information on how you can participate (in
body or in spirit!) in GPTC activities at the European Conference on Tobacco
or Health in Warsaw, Poland this June. GPTC participants from the region
are organizing a session about their global partnerships. And there will
be an ancillary meeting for all GPTC groups in attendance.
For more information about the conference see http://www.ectoh2002.org
d) AZ's Tobacco Talk "visits"
Ukraine
Barbara Bruce (USA - AZ) had Lisa Houston, a Peace Corps volunteer at
Ukrainian State Maritime Technical University, on her weekly "Tobacco
Talk" radio show in March. Lisa talked about the Ukraine, how she
got involved with tobacco control, the tobacco industry's "youth
smoking prevention" programs in the country, the increasing percentage
of young women smoking (and Philip Morris's billboard with a pregnant
women), the lack of smokefree places, and how much cigarettes cost (20-40
cents, about $2-10/month. To put this sum in perspective, the director
of her university earns $50/month). Lisa also talked about her and her
U.S. partner's joint tobacco control project centered on Tobacco's Global
Toll & World No Tobacco Day.
5) MISCELLANEOUS ODDS &
ENDS
a) GPTC groups interesting
in networking
A number of GPTC partnerships and participants are interested in networking
with other partnerships that have similar interests. Please contact the
appropriate persons if you are interested:
Additionally, Nina Jones <Nina.Jones@nau.edu>
(USA - AZ) has generously offered to do research for any international
groups that need assistance tracking down information.
b) This
week, GPTC Advisory Board member Witold Zatonski (Poland) was profiled
in Baltimore Sun. You can read the article online at: http://www.sunspot.net/bal-te.smoking27mar27.story
c) If the earth's
population was a small community of 100 people...
Someone forwarded us the weblink to this site which poignantly describes
the composition of our Global Village using a combination of shocking
statistics and powerful photos (in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese,
and Italian) http://www.luccaco.com/terra
Essential Action
Global Partnerships for Tobacco Control
P.O. Box 19405 ~ Washington,
DC 20036
Tel: +1 202-387-8030 ~ Fax: +1 202-234-5176
Email: tobacco@essential.org
www.essentialaction.org/tobacco
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