Guest wowpow Posted July 7, 2007 Posted July 7, 2007 APPOINTMENT / WORLD TOBACCO CONTROL AGENCY Bangkok Post Hatai is new chief of FCTC Hatai Chitanondh, president of the Thailand Health Promotion Institute, was yesterday chosen as the new head of global tobacco treaty's secretariat. The selection was announced yesterday at the end of a week-long Conference of Parties to the World Health Organisation Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FCTC). Dr Hatai will hold the office for one year and play a role in shaping effective policies on tobacco control among member countries. He will need to work closely with the other 148 nations which are the parties to the convention. As the new president of the bureau of the Conference of Parties for the FCTC, Dr Hatai said he would focus his work on curbing cross-border tobacco advertisements. ''Resisting the flow of these transnational tobacco ads, which come with live sport events and the internet, is the biggest challenge for Thailand at the moment. I will use this opportunity to protect our country from such harmful ads,'' he said. ''But the problem is most of these cross-border tobacco ads come from the US, which is not a party to the treaty. I will have to work hard to convince the US to support our work,'' said the 78-year-old health campaigner. Representatives of the 148 nations attending the Bangkok conference yesterday committed themselves to developing specific guidelines for protecting health policy from tobacco industry interference. Thailand joined Brazil, Ecuador, Palau and the Netherlands in volunteering to lead a process to develop policies to bolster the capacity of governments to challenge such interferences. Quote
