As Taiwan gears up to combat tobacco-related disease, internationally renowned tobacco control experts advised yesterday how the nation may effectively stem the spread of cigarettes.
A US tobacco-control expert suggested yesterday raising cigarette prices is an effective way to reduce the smoking population.
"Statistics show every 10 percent of increase in tobacco prices would reduce the adult smoking population by 4 percent and the teenage smoking population by 8 percent," said Michael Eriksen.
Eriksen's remarks came at a two-day Taipei conference entitled Evidence-based Strategies for Comprehensive Tobacco Control in Taiwan.
Eriksen, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Office on Smoking and Health, is the CDC's distinguished consultant to the WHO in Geneva.
He encouraged Taiwan to embrace the WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the world's first international treaty on tobacco, as part of the nation's bid to join the WHO.
The Department of Health's Bureau of Health Promotion, together with the National Health Research Institutes (NHRI), hosted the event.
Hatai Chitanondh, president of the Asia Pacific Association for Control of Tobacco warned the nation against imported cigarettes from China.
"Last month, China signed a free-trade agreement with the ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] countries," said Hatai.
"The signing of the agreement created the biggest free-trade area in the world," Hatai said.
"The principle of a free-trade zone is that products circulating amongst the nations can enjoy lower tax and tariff -- including tobacco," said Hatai, adding that China is a massive global cigarette exporter.
Hatai said China's signing the free-trade agreement would create greater smoking population in the region.
In response to Hatai's advice, Shih Yaw-tang (石曜堂), director of the NHRI's Division of Health Policy Research, remarked that tobacco should not be permitted to circulate in the free zone like other goods.
"Health matters. Tobacco is an invisible killer," Shih said.
Meanwhile, Richard Kagan, professor of the department of history of Hamline University in the US, proposed a human-rights approach to tobacco control.
"Health is a human right. Tobacco, therefore, falls into the category of being a violation of human rights," said Kagan.
Kagan proposed two ways to combat tobacco through the human-rights principle.
The first way, according to Kagan, is to control tobacco by launching a government injunction. "Tobacco should not be allowed to exist anywhere," he said.
"Secondly, the nation may consider to make health a human right in its constitution," said Kagan, adding that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) quite appreciated the proposal when they met on Aug. 2.
According to the Bureau of Health Promotion (BPH) of Taiwan's DOH, Taiwan's adult male smoking population makes up 47. 3 percent of the country's total male population, the third-highest percentage amongst Asia Pacific nations.
China's adult male smoking population occupies 63 percent of the country's total male population, the highest in the region -- followed by Japan at 52.8 percent, according to the BPH.
The BPH also said that Taiwan's teenage male smoking population occupies 11.3 percent of that entire demographic also making it the third-highest in the region after China and Hong Kong.
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