THE smoke alarm is ringing vigorously across the globe.
While in the US President Clinton
in a dramatic
assault on cigarette
use - has declared nicotine a
drug and ordered
a crackdown on
childhood smoking, in China the communist government has put a blanket ban on tobacco advertising (Down To Earth, August 15).
Clinton has issued guidelines for the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
that would attack children's cigarette
smoking by banning cigarette vending
machines and sports sponsorships by
cigarette brands and by imposing severe
restrictions on tobacco advertising.
Tobacco companies and advertising
interest groups have filed lawsuits challenging the measure. Even some of his
fellow Democrats like Charlie Rose, representing Nbrth Carolina, the state with
tobacco as its largest cash crop, have
accused Clinton of being interested
only in "making a big political splash".
The FDA commissioner, David Kessler,
is, however, standing firm by the
President's side. "This is the number
one preventable cause of death and disability in this country," he said. His
agency must wait 90 days for public
comment before implementing the
rules. And the Republican dominated
Congress is expected to use this period
to work out a strong offensive against
the controversial legislation.
Meanwhile, in China the government's strategy of blacking out cigarette
advertising seems to have fallen flat.
According to a latest estimate published
in the People's Daily, the number of
smokers in China is increasing at the
rate of 7 per cent a year, a giant leap
from the previous year's 2 per cent per
%,ear. The cost of treating smoking-related illnesses in China and labour losses
from such diseases has overtaken tobacco tax revenues, says the newspaper. The
experts make a chilling prediction: by
the vear 2000, 2 million Chinese people
ill die ofover-smoking everyyear ifthe
rakes are not put on now.
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