Better without tobacco

The World Expo 2010 organizers in Shanghai deserve to be commended on their reported decision to return the 200 million yuan ($29.4 million) received as donation from a local tobacco company.

In doing so, they have removed the stain on a landmark event that would add to the glory of Shanghai as a great host.

Thanks are due to the 20-odd public health professionals, who protested against the sponsorship. Their passionate involvement put an end to an unseemly episode that might have rendered the much-anticipated Expo 2010 deficient.

The amount donated was the biggest such contribution, made specifically for the construction of the China Pavilion. Doubtless, 200 million yuan is a lot of money, but we are glad the organizers decided to give it up. The loss would have been bigger, and more damaging, had the China Pavilion reeked of tobacco.

Although the acceptance of the sponsorship, in the first instance, betrays a regrettable weakness of judgment, it is good that the organizers have changed their mind before it is too late.

The theme of World Expo 2010 is "Better city, better life". Numerous medical-scientific studies have proved the life-threatening nature of tobacco products. Many surveys confirm that sponsorship by tobacco companies encourages tobacco use, particularly among the young. Tobacco is incompatible with the event's professed commitment to a better life.

Accepting that 200 million yuan would violate the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, to which China is a signatory. Our government signed the document in 2003, and the national legislature approved it in 2005. Tobacco sponsorship goes against the country's explicit commitment to tobacco control.

That the organizers finally chose to give up the 200 million yuan is worthy of celebration, especially when typical Chinese ambivalence toward tobacco is counted in.

If local governments continue to take tobacco into the bulk of local revenues, there is no way they can be whole-hearted participants in national tobacco control programs. For the GDP-minded local development planners, tobacco is the financial opium. The addiction has no cure until State budget financiers shun tobacco revenue, which is unlikely to happen in the short term.

It is a pity that no thought was given to the legitimacy of the sponsorship until public health experts spoke out against it. It is good that the World Expo organizers saw sense and returned the donation. Otherwise, it would have been a shame.

(China Daily 07/23/2009 page8)