HEART HEALTH COMMUNITY CELEBRATES WORLD NO TOBACCO DAY AROUND THE WORLDThe World Heart Federation and many of it member organizations joined forces with others committed to health advocacy to celebrate World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) on 30 May 2009. Organized by the World Health Organization Tobacco Free Initiative, the campaign was developed around the slogan “Showing the truth; saving lives.” It called on the public, health professionals, and policymakers to demand that the tobacco industry display pictorial warnings on all tobacco packages. “People say that pictures speak louder than words,” said Dr Pekka Puska, President of the World Heart Federation and long-time advocate for effective tobacco control. “In the case of graphic health warnings, it is certainly true: images of disease and disfigurement help people identify with the health consequences of smoking and make them think more seriously. They help counter the false association of smoking with glamour, beauty and freedom that has been used so successfully to promote tobacco use, above all among the young.” Dr Puska was interviewed by the World Health Organization in its podcast on WNTD. The World Heart Federation also issued a press release that emphasised the economic costs of tobacco use and brought attention to the active role heart foundations are playing to support the process of implementing pictorial labels in the Caribbean. The Heart Foundation of Jamaica, with support from the Bloomberg Foundation and technical assistance from the InterAmerican Heart Foundation, is leading a coalition of partners in the Caribbean Graphic Health Warnings project. The initiative is helping incorporate graphic health warnings in tobacco products sold in CARICOM (Caribbean Community and Common Market: see link below). “Having a World No Tobacco Day which focused on the issue provided us with a good ‘hook’ for media promotion” said Debbie Chen, Executive Director of the Heart Foundation of Jamaica. The heart foundation worked with local coalition members including the Jamaica Cancer Society and the Diabetes Association of Jamaica Cancer Society to organize WNTD activities. These included radio broadcasts, newspaper advertisements and articles, and an interactive “Rap Session” for the public. The Heart & Stroke Foundation of Barbados, also part of the Caribbean coalition, released several press articles underlining the economic impact of smoking and the importance of tobacco use as a cause of cardiovascular disease as it called on the government ministries concerned to make graphic health warnings a reality. The message was reinforced by a full-page advertorial that appeared simultaneously in the four Caribbean countries which are participating in the project. In Africa, the Nigerian Heart Foundation organized a WNTD workshop for nearly 400 students in Lagos, working closely with the Ministry of Health, secondary schools, the World Health Organization and other local and international partners. In a television broadcast discussing the WNTD theme, the Vice President of the Nigerian Heart Foundation, Engineer Oluyomi Adeyemi Wilson, joined representatives from other organizations involved to call upon the Nigerian government to adopt pictorial labels. The Irish Heart Foundation, which collaborates with ASH (Action on smoking and health) Ireland and the Irish Cancer Society in tobacco control advocacy on cigarette prices, tobacco smuggling and point-of-sale advertising, picked up the World Heart Federation WNTD press release and adapted it using local information. The Swiss Heart Foundation works within a coalition for tobacco control that launches a national Quit and Win competition every year on WNTD. ProCor, the Global network promoting cardiovascular health in developing countries and other low-resource settings, ran a week-long online series in the run-up to WNTD. It highlighted the latest evidence, programmes and policies supporting tobacco control, supplemented by a global discussion forum over email. The World Heart Federation is developing a page in its Members Only section to share information on members’ tobacco control activities. Please contact Alice Grainger Gasser to submit information, links, press clippings, or materials developed so that these can be shared with other members. Useful links World Heart Federation activities > World Heart Federation Members' activities > (members need to login to access this page) ProCor series on tobacco control > WHO-WNTD podcast and World Heart Federation press release and resources on pictorial labels > HeartBeat article on Caribbean Graphic Health Warnings project > | |||||||
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