New Survey: Amercians Want U.S. to Sign the FCTC

PR Newswire

A new survey finds that two-thirds of Americans say the U.S. should sign a tough new international treaty to protect the world against the spread of tobacco-related death and disease. The survey, released today by the American Cancer Society, found that 66 percent of Americans either "strongly" or "somewhat" favor the treaty while only 25 percent "strongly" or "somewhat" oppose it. While non-smokers are more likely to favor the treaty (73 percent to 18 percent), even current smokers favor it (53 percent to 41 percent). The treaty -- the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) -- would save millions of lives worldwide by promoting effective policies to help children reject tobacco use and to help adults quit smoking.

In the survey, respondents were asked to indicate their most important reasons for supporting the treaty. The two most important reasons were:

1) 80,000-100,000 children and teenagers become addicted to smoking every day throughout the world, and strong action must be taken to prevent youth smoking.

2) 500 million people alive today in the world are projected to die of tobacco-related disease unless strong action is taken soon.

At current rates, tobacco will become the world's number one cause of premature death by 2025. It is already the number one cause of death in the United States, claiming over 440,000 lives per year. The FCTC requires ratifying nations to eliminate all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, with a narrow exception for nations such as the United States that have constitutions that may not allow a complete ban. It also requires warning labels to occupy at least 30 percent of the front and back of every pack of cigarettes; prohibits misleading tobacco product descriptors such as "light" and "mild"; commits nations to protecting nonsmokers from tobacco smoke in indoor workplaces; urges strict regulation of tobacco product contents; and calls for higher tobacco taxes, global coordination to fight tobacco smuggling, and promotion of tobacco prevention, cessation and research programs.

The FCTC was adopted unanimously by the World Health Assembly in May 2003, opening the way for countries to sign and ratify the treaty. President Bush has until June 29 to sign it -- only 57 days from now. It would then have to be ratified by the U.S. Senate. So far, more than 100 nations have signed the treaty, which will go into effect when 40 nations have ratified it. Failure by the U.S. to sign by June 29 would be widely interpreted to mean that the U.S. does not support the treaty, even though it would be possible for the U.S. to join the treaty at a later date using a different procedure. The survey was conducted by phone from April 6-10, 2004, among a representative sample of 1,007 adults, age 18 and older, living in the contiguous United States. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1