Hear
An Argentine lawyer will receive the award this year from the World Health Organization (WHO) with which the director general of that organization recognizes achievements to control the smoking epidemicas reported today. Gianella Severini32 years old, will receive the award at the Argentine headquarters of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) next week, the World No Tobacco Day.
They highlighted for the election of the 32-year-old lawyer, originally from Neuquén, the Special Award from the Director-General of WHO “His work since legal coordination of [Campaign for] Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK), where she has stood out as a prominent woman leader in Latin America becoming one of the most influential people in legal matters related to tobacco control in Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and other countries. Your strategic advice on legislation and litigation “It has been crucial to upholding laws and resisting tobacco industry interference in several countries.”
Among those who have received the distinction are Tabare Vazquezformer president of Uruguay, the Institute of Clinical and Health Effectiveness (IECS) and FIC Argentina. Severini He is one of the youngest people to receive the medal that awards Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
When you look at how smoking impacts the health of Argentines from the expense it generates for the health system, any other argument begins to lose strength. Last year, during a meeting of civil society with health authorities and legislators 12 years after the enactment of the National Tobacco Control Law, it was reported that the country was allocating each year to the care of diseases that are associated with well-documented manner (heart attack, cancer, pneumonia, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or disability, among others) to an amount in billions of pesos that could be compared with the annual budget allocated to the Ministry of Health.
“The prevalence of cigarette consumption continues to be high in Argentina compared to other countries. With new emerging products [cigarrillo electrónico, tabaco calentado, bolsitas de nicotina o pouches] that are being marketed with the argument that they are less harmful or with a false harm reduction strategy, we fall into the contradiction that the very industry that generated the public health problem wants us to believe that, now, it brings the solution.” , says Severini.
A graduate of the National University of Córdoba, Severini also has a master’s degree in Global Health Law from Georgetown University, with a specialty in Human Rights and International Trade, and a master’s degree in Global Rule of Law and Constitutional Democracy from the University of Genoa.
Your daily task is aimed at the protection of the right to health and, especially, with regard to chronic non-communicable diseases. It places special emphasis on taking care of the health of children and adolescents through the prohibition of advertising and promotion of products for smoking or vaping, either in kiosks or through electronic media.
I work in the Foundation for the Development of Sustainable Policies (Fundeps), the Inter-American Heart Foundation (FIC) Argentina, in the O’Neill National and Global Health Right Institute from Georgetown University. She is legal coordinator of CTFK, an entity based in the United States, and in the organization Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI). She is co-coordinator in the region of the Global Tobacco Control Alliance and co-founder of the Latin American youth network CREA.
In dialogue with THE NATION, reviews that the country has three pending tasks. The first one mentioned is the ratification of the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC) of the WHO, since Argentina is one of the few among more than 180 states that signed it that has not yet complied with that commitment.
The second is a complete ban on advertising, promotion and sponsorship for both conventional cigarettes and emerging tobacco and nicotine products, with monitoring to ensure compliance. “You can have the best standard, but without control it doesn’t work.”, he proposes. “The sale of electronic cigarettes is not allowed by Anmat, but this prohibition is not monitored appropriately so the population has access,” she says.
The last is the increase in tobacco taxes, “the most cost-effective measure” of public health to discourage consumption by raising the sales price. He considers, at the same time, that “it would be a catastrophe” if the minimum tax on the sale of cigarettes (a fixed amount of the price that is updated by inflation) is eliminated in the chapter of the Base Law on the tobacco tax because that would make consumption even more accessible.
“The public health regulatory standards to control the global tobacco epidemic are not only in international recommendations, but there is an international treaty such as the FCTC, unlike what happens with other areas of public health, such as nutrition policies.” . That is to say, not only does the evidence exist worldwide, but normatively we know what to do – says Severini. In Argentina, the tobacco industry lobby is very strong. It also exists in other countries, but, here, the level of interference in policies is very high: we do not have a lobby law, like Chile, nor other sufficient mechanisms to regulate it. The northern producing provinces lined up against the ratification of the FCTC and there is no public conversation about the benefits it would have [ratificarlo] for the country as a whole. There are numerous producing countries that have done it, such as Brazil, which is one with the largest production in the world.”
The arguments that arise to stop restrictions are usually that of commercial freedom, when it comes, for example, to prohibit the display of tobacco products among sweets in kiosks and near schools, and that of personal autonomy for smoking by consumers. “All public health policies seek to protect the population’s right to health. Tobacco control laws do not seek to prohibit consumption, but rather regulate where to do so and seek to ensure that fewer people start smoking and reduce the initiation of consumption. Adults are free to decide whether to smoke or not. The problem appears when an exposed third party is harmed, as occurs with smoke in a closed space. Inevitably, The State must protect that third party so that personal autonomy does not harm the rights of others.”says Severini.
In the case of advertising, as he continues, “the problem is when it reaches a vulnerable population, such as children, many of whom have not smoked and do not recognize the persuasive component in what they see, nor do they have the tools to know that “Its consumption can cause serious damage to health.” In this case, he explains that the prohibition of this advertising is restricting commercial freedom, not expression, in favor of the right to health, with higher constitutional rank.
“The Supreme Court has already defined it in a claim by a company against Santa Fe. The conduct of a private person is regulated to protect general health -says-. The same applies to the place of display of packages in a kiosk: if it is next to sweets, kids associate that it is not harmful. “The Argentine State committed to respect, protect and guarantee the right to health by ratifying numerous human rights treaties.”
This morning, the WHO presented the world report on the growth in the consumption of tobacco products among minors. Ruediger Krechdirector of Health Promotion at the WHO, said during the press conference in which he participated THE NATIONwhich is estimated at about 37 million adolescents between 13 and 15 years old who use these products, with countries in which the use of electronic cigarettes in that group already exceeds the number of adults who do so. “It is the responsibility of adults to protect children and, of States, to avoid devastating effects on the health of the population,” said the official.
One way to sift through any claims about risks and products is, Severini recommends, to consult reliable sources. He cites the online sites of the WHO and PAHO, which have information in Spanish, and NGOs such as FIC Argentina, Fundeps or CTFK. “We work with the sole interest of public health, with no other interest behind that seeks economic gain or conflict of interest,” she concludes.
