The World Health Organization (WHO) today raised the alarm on the tobacco marketing net that targets children and youth in Vietnam.
WHO called on the Government to strictly enforce Vietnam’s complete ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and the restriction on sponsorship, and alerted parents, teachers and children to the marketing ploys designed to hook youngsters into tobacco addiction.
“The tobacco industry preys on young people’s vulnerability. They know that the young underestimate the risk of becoming addicted to nicotine and the tragic health consequences that will follow,” said Dr. Jean-Marc Olivé, WHO Representative in Vietnam.
“Cigarettes and tobacco products today come in all kinds of flavours and scents. They are packaged in bright colours that look more like candy than a deadly substance,” he said.
Youngsters are led to believe that certain types of cigarettes do not contain nicotine, when in fact they do. These tactics along with a bombardment of messages through advertising deceive young people into trying their first stick.
The younger one starts, the more difficult it is to stop. Most people in Vietnam smoking before the age of 18.
The theme of World No Tobacco Day, "Tobacco-Free Youth", calls attention to the urgent need to strictly enforce Vietnam’s ban on advertising and promotion of cigarettes.
“The tobacco industry falsely associated use of its products with desirable qualities such as glamour, energy and sex appeal as well as exciting activities and adventure,” Dr Olivé said.
“Widespread tobacco advertising makes tobacco use look normal and makes it difficult for young people to believe that tobacco use will kill.
“The industry has numerous ways of targeting youth and partial bans or a failure to enforce bans only allow companies to shift their vast resources from one promotional tactic to another,” he said.
This is an alarming situation. Only strict enforcement of Vietnam’s complete ban on advertising and promotion can break the tobacco marketing net.
This action, along with raising tobacco tax, banning the sale of individual cigarettes and restricting the sale of tobacco to licensed retailers only, will limit the access to cigarettes by young people.
“On this World No Tobacco Day – I challenge all young people to say no to smoking. I appeal to you all to protect our youth from tobacco's harm and break the tobacco marketing net,” Dr Olivé said.
Dr Olivé also congratulated the Hanoi School of Public Health for winning this year’s WHO World No Tobacco Day Award.
The WHO award recognizes organizations for their actions to break the tobacco marketing net and protect youth from tobacco epidemics.
The Hanoi School of Public Health won the award for its important evidence-based tobacco control research, its contribution in advancing tobacco control policy in the country, and in demonstrating how a smoke-free university can be achieved with the active participation of faculty and students.
FACT SHEET – World No Tobacco Day
These statistics tell a tragic tale:
Global
- Smoking is the single biggest preventable cause of death
- Currently tobacco claims 5.4 million lives a year
- Last century 100 million people died from tobacco related disease
- This century it’s estimated 1 Billion will die from tobacco
- More than 50 percent of these deaths will be in Asia
- Asia has the greatest number of smokers, among the highest rates of male smoking prevalence, and the fastest increase of tobacco use uptake by women and young people
Viet Nam
- Viet Nam has one of the highest rates of smoking prevalence in the world
- 40,000 Vietnamese die each year from smoking
- 56% of all males smoke
- 32% of males aged 15-24 smoke
- 10% of school boys age 13-15 years are smokers
- 20% of school boys age 13-15 years say they had an object with cigarette brand logo on it
Females
- So far in Vietnam the number of women smoking is still very low.
- But we need to remain vigilant and ensure tobacco marketing doesn’t lure young women into smoking.
- The tobacco industry will target young females through advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
- We must all work together to ensure anti-smoking messages target girls and stop them from taking up smoking.
WHO Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FCTC)
- The WHO FCTC is a major public health treaty that gives people protection from tobacco for the first time by setting international standards on tobacco price and tax measures, tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, labelling, illicit trade and second-hand smoke.
- Entered into force on 27 February 2005; to date 154 countries have ratified the Convention, including all 27 eligible countries in the Western Pacific Region. Vietnam ratified the WHO FCTC on December 17, 2004.
- Countries that signed up will be obliged to ban advertising and sponsorship promoting tobacco products, forbid sales to minors, force companies to print larger health warnings on cigarette packs, use taxation to reduce consumption and clamp down on smuggling.
- The WHO FCTC has the potential to save over 10 million lives per year.