Today, May 31st, is World No Tobacco Day.

The day was established by the World Health Organization, (WHO), in 1987 to encourage a 24-hour period of abstinence from all forms of tobacco consumption across the world and to draw the attention of people around the globe to the “tobacco epidemic” and the preventable death and disease that it causes.  In fact, the day originally chosen was April 7th and the idea was to mark the 40th anniversary of the founding of the organization, but the next year it was moved to May 31st and it has been marked on this date ever since.

Each year, member states of the WHO undertake activities to inform the public on the dangers of using tobacco, the “business practices of tobacco companies”, what WHO is doing to “fight the tobacco epidemic”, and what people around the world can do to “claim their right to health and healthy living and to protect future generations”.

Each year, a theme is adopted for activities for the Day and is the focus for various materials, (brochures, fliers, posters, websites, social media – such as a video channel on youtube – and press releases),  which are then featured in various activities throughout the following year.  Some of them have been designed simply as a focus, whilst others have been hard hitting slogans, but I am not sure that anyone would claim that for this year’s theme: The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, (FCTC), is a global public health treaty designed to implement policies that work towards “tobacco cessation” and was introduced by WHO in 1998, ten years after the World No Tobacco Day was established.  Kyrgyzstan signed the treaty in 2004 and ratified it in 2006 but, in the meantime, it came into force in 2005, 90 days after the 40th member state had ratified it.

Here is a list of the themes:

• 1988 – Tobacco or Health: choose health
• 1989 – Women and tobacco: the female smoker: at added risk
• 1990 – Childhood and youth without tobacco: growing up without tobacco
• 1991 – Public places and transport: better be tobacco free
• 1992 – Tobacco free workplaces: safer and healthier
• 1993 – Health services: our windows to a tobacco free world
• 1994 – Media and tobacco: get the message across
• 1995 – Tobacco costs more than you think
• 1996 – Sport and art without tobacco: play it tobacco free
• 1997 – United for a tobacco free world
• 1998 – Growing up without tobacco
• 1999 – Leave the pack behind
• 2000 - Tobacco kills, don’t be duped
• 2001 - Second-hand smoke kills
• 2002 - Tobacco free sports
• 2003 - Tobacco free film, tobacco free fashion
• 2004 - Tobacco and poverty, a vicious circle
• 2005 - Health professionals against tobacco
• 2006 - Tobacco: deadly in any form or disguise
• 2007 - Smoke free inside
• 2008 - Tobacco-free youth
• 2009 - Tobacco health warnings
• 2010 - Gender and tobacco with an emphasis on marketing to women
• 2011 – The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

As part of the “Tobacco Free Youth” campaign that formed the theme for that year’s No Tobacco Day, the WHO called for a worldwide ban on all tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship.  The authorities have attempted to embrace this theme, putting controls and restrictions on tobacco adverts, and places where smoking is permitted.

As in many other countries around the world, however, it may sometimes seem as if they are fighting a losing battle. Tobacco products, for example, (and for that matter many alcoholic spirits), tend to be very cheap and smoking is pretty widespread amongst the population.

Another issue is that Tobacco is a major cash crop grown by Kyrgyzstan’s farmers in the South of the country.  Indeed, Stalin is said to have enjoyed smoking tobacco from Kyrgyzstan.  It may be possible to switch to alternative crops, but it is not clear how the farmers would adapt to such a move.

What’s more, the tobacco industry provides employment because Kyrgyzstan has a cigarette factory – operated by Reemtsma, (a German company), which is now part of the British Imperial Tobacco Company and one of their 31 cigarette factories around the world.   It represents one of the oldest and largest foreign investments in the country.  It hasn’t, however, been without controversy, but most of the issues have not revolved around health issues.  Most arguments or disputes seem to have centred on the international agreement which attracted the original investment – which stipulated a target for production which has never been reached.  As a result, some locals claim, tax revenues have been less than was forecast when concessions were granted.

Of course, for Reemtsma, production is one thing but sales are another.  As I understand it, the factory has the capacity to produce sufficient cigarettes to meet the targets, but it probably wouldn’t make much sense for them to produce millions of cigarettes if they couldn’t be sold.  They would languish in store and spoil.  Exports to neighbouring countries are apparently limited by the policies they operate which makes Kyrgyz production more expensive, whilst the Kyrgyz market is liberal and imports are almost encouraged.  I am told that there is even a healthy trade in contraband cigarettes which are smuggled across the border.

These days the bulk of cigarettes manufactured are like the vast majority of Scotch Whiskeys that are available: a blend. Although some specialist minority products might be based on tobacco from a particular region, very little Kyrgyz tobacco will actually end up in cigarettes manufactured in Kyrgyzstan.  The local production is purchased by specialist firms that then sell to producers on the open global market.  Imperial Tobacco may buy it but then it will be distributed amongst the company’s affiliate factories to be blended with tobacco from other countries, thus helping to preserve consistency in a brand across several factories and prevent problems arising from disease or shortages.

So, in addition to the work generated in farming and manufacturing, as in most countries, tobacco offers the Kyrgyz government a substantial level of income from the duties levied.  I well remember how tensions rose back home as the budget approached and people wondered if the Chancellor of the exchequer would raise duties on tobacco.

It is also true, of course, that smoking has costs, especially in the form of the cost of health care, lost production from illness … and so forth.

It presents the government with a dilemma … what to do about tobacco.