Cultivating tobacco, a major ‘violation of UN convention’

The Bahrain Anti-Smoking Association has strongly rejected the proposal on cultivating tobacco in the Kingdom, stating that it is a clear violation of the UN Convention on Tobacco Control. The Kingdom’s authorities wants to allow the planting and production of tobacco, as well as the commercial production of alternative nicotine substances – such as vape juice. Authorities have already drafted legislation that would enable tobacco companies to set up commercial operations here.

In a statement presented to House of Representatives Speaker Fawzia Zainal, the association said: “The association was founded to combat smoking habits in the Kingdom. We are totally hurt by the decision.” “The proposal discussed in the parliament is against World Health Organisation’s regulations and rules on controlling use of tobacco. “We are carrying out an awareness campaign against the use of tobacco and whatever happening now is contradicting our efforts.”

Echoing a similar view, the Bahrain Society of Physicians has also warned against the move, warning that the call for tobacco cultivation would adversely affect health achievements. The President of the Society, Dr Ghada Al Qasem, said that the Kingdom has made great strides in the field of promoting public health and goes against the Kingdom’s health strides. Dr Al Qasem pointed out that the Kingdom is one of the first GCC countries to issue a law banning smoking in indoor areas to implement the Kingdom’s health policy to combat smoking and preserve the safety of citizens and residents from the danger of secondhand smoke.

“As doctors, the first question we ask the patient is whether he smokes or not, because we are more aware of the dangers of smoking on the respiratory system, veins, arteries, heart, colon, skin and all organs and functions. How can we convince a patient to stay away from smoking when he sees that his country is growing tobacco?” As called for in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Governments must comprehensively enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship at international expos and conferences, in order to ensure their events and programmes are tobacco free and that their activities and participants are not sponsored by tobacco companies.

The world must unite to halt the tobacco industry’s aggressive marketing of its products, that cause addiction, suffering and millions of deaths each year, the World Health Organisation recently stated. This renewed call came in light of reports of tobacco companies aiming to establish new partnerships with governments to sponsor events or pavilions in world expos. The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control includes in Article 5.3, a commitment to protect public health policies with respect to tobacco control from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry.

This commitment is reflected in the Memorandum of Understanding of 2011 between WHO and the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), which “bans” sponsorship of expos by tobacco companies or their agents or affiliates. Governments must proactively aspire to reduce the number of people starting and continuing smoking, to promote health and preserve future generations, the WHO has been frequently proposing to authorities across the world.