HEALTH-THAILAND: Cigarettes May Be Sold Not Displayed

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Aug 30 2005 (IPS) - -Thailand’s anti-tobacco lobby is on the verge of smoking out the ubiquitous display of cigarette packets that are placed behind or by the side of the cashiers’ counters in retail shops across the country.

D-Day is Sept. 24, when cigarette packets enter a state that would be worse than pornography here – banished completely from the public eye hidden away in cupboards and only to be offered when a smoker seeks his nicotine fix.

And one of the leading targets of this campaign, the international chain of convenience stores 7-11, has already been warned by a member of the anti-tobacco lobby that a boycott would ensue if cigarette packets are openly displayed after the deadline.

That warning by the Single Parent Network is with a reason, since 7-11 has 3,100 retail stores across Thailand, making it the largest chain of stores that have cigarette packets displayed on racks within sight of the cashiers’ counters.

This network has already collected more than 10,000 signatures from Thai students to back the ban on the display of cigarette packets announced by the ministry of public health.

”Seven-Eleven has been one of the vocal opponents of this effort, so they have become a natural target,” said Hatai Chitannondh, a medical doctor who is president of the Thai Health Promotion Institute.

”These point of sale displays of cigarette packets is one of the big factors that induce Thai youth into smoking,” he explained during an interview. ”Getting rid of this point of sale display is to stop new smokers”.

An estimated 500,000 retail outlets, including the small and gigantic supermarkets, are in the line of fire as Dr. Hatai and his campaigners push for the full enforcement of Thailand’s Tobacco Products Control Act of 1992 by the health ministry.

This impending change in the way cigarettes are sold here will place Thailand ahead of its Asian neighbours in the on-going efforts to prevent the public display of tobacco products.

”Thailand is the first government in South-east Asia and perhaps the first in Asia to do so,” said Mary Assunta, head of the Framework Convention Alliance (FCA), an umbrella group of over 200 anti-smoking organisations across the world.

Bangkok’s decision to go ahead with such a ban is in keeping with the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCCT), she told IPS. ”There is no reason for cigarettes, a regulated product, to be exempt from these restrictions”.

The FCCT, which came into force in February this year, is the world’s first public health treaty aimed at reducing the trail of death and disease caused by tobacco products. Under the section on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, it states that countries can ”restrict use of direct and indirect incentives that encourage the purchase of tobacco products by the public”.

And at a time when tobacco companies are finding previous avenues to display their products closed – such as advertising in the media -, they consider ”the pack as a vehicle for advertising,” says Assunta. ”The only way to prevent this is to prohibit pack display”.

The forthcoming ban follows the triumph the anti-tobacco lobby experienced earlier this year, when tobacco companies, compelled by law, began to display graphic images about the dangers of smoking on the outer cover of cigarette packets.

These images, which cover half the packet, made Thailand only the fourth country in the world to introduce such measures. The other three countries are Brazil, Canada and Singapore.

Prior to that, smoking was outlawed in air-conditioned restaurants and a strict ban on cigarette advertisements was imposed, earning Thailand praise for such measures despite the country having a huge domestic producer of cigarettes and also being a grower of tobacco.

But the anti-tobacco lobby still has a formidable challenge, given that the country has 10.6 million smokers, nearly a sixth of the population, with the youngest smokers beginning to puff at the age of 11 years.

According to studies down by Thailand Action on Smoking and Health Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, nearly 125 people die everyday in this South-east Asian country due to smoking-related diseases. And increasingly more women are taking to cigarettes, it adds.

However, the percentage of Thai smokers ranks below other countries in South-east Asia, such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines. Vietnam tops the list, with 73 percent of the male population smoking, followed by Cambodia, where 70 percent of the men smoke, and Indonesia, where 68 percent of the men smoke, states the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Globally, there are 1.3 billion smokers, of whom nearly 650 million will die prematurely due to tobacco-related illnesses, adds the Geneva-based health body.

Dr. Hatai hopes to save some of these lives by making it more difficult to buy cigarettes at retail shops here. ”By closing this avenue, buying a cigarette will require an effort and it will not be as easy as before.”