A new round of negotiations on the world's first anti-tobacco treaty have opened in Geneva. The World Health Organisation is prompting the treaty. But public health campaigners say the draft treaty under discussion is weak. From Geneva, Claire Doole reports.

30th April 2001

Anti-tobacco treaty

The head of the World Health Organisation, Dr. Gro Harlem Bruntland, opened the session with an appeal to member states to agree a set of global rules to control tobacco. She told delegates that time was not on their side. Four million people die annually from tobacco related illnesses, a figure that is set to rise to ten million over the next couple of decades. But anti-tobacco activists are concerned the final treaty will be a weak document which fails to prevent the rising death toll. They're angry that a draft text makes no mention of a total ban on cigarette advertising. Instead it proposes a partial ban on advertising targetted atunder eighteen year olds.

appeal: an appeal is a serious and urgent request

time was not on their side: they did not have much time to find a solution

anti-tobacco activists: an activist is someone who does things to bring about social or political changes such as banning tobacco

rising death toll: the increasing number of people dying

advertising targetted at: adverts specifically designed to appeal to

under eighteen year olds: people aged no older than seventeen years

Activists say this is impossible to implement, fails to take into account that smoking is addictive for all and that the ban may encourage youngsters to take up what is perceived as a sophisticated adult pastime. The anti-tobacco lobby suspects that the tobacco industry is behind the weakening of many of the draft treaty provisions and it's deeply worried that they could be diluted even further under pressure from the United States, Japan and the European Union. It expects the issues of advertising restrictions, anti-smuggling measures and cigarette pack labelling to be the most hotly disputed during the week-long negotiations.

implement: if you implement a plan, you carry it out

addictive: if a drug is addictive, people who start taking it find they cannot stop

perceived as: understood to be

draft treaty provisions: an early version of what is in the agreement

diluted: weakened or watered down

anti-smuggling measures:actions against smuggling carried out by people in authority

disputed: if you dispute an opinion, you say you feel it is incorrect