A non-governmental organisation based in India hopes to convince Malaysia to say tak nak to the Asian Tobacco Congress and Trade Fair, scheduled to be held in November in Kuala Lumpur.

Green Motherland ( Pasumai Thaayagam ) is to launch a campaign tomorrow in Tamil Nadu, where it is based, to collect one million signatures from around India. This will be handed over to the Malaysian government in a bid to stop the two-day event.

The Nov 14-16 international congress and exhibition - with the theme 'Emerging Tobacco Markets' - is organised by Tabexpo Coalition , comprising Tobacco Reporter and Tobacco Journal International based respectively in the United States and Germany.

Green Motherland secretary R Arul said in a statement that it is important for Malaysia to act in "Asia's best public health interest" and to cancel the event.

He said this would send a strong message to the global tobacco industry that Malaysia will not be exploited as host for a business associated with disease and death, even if this results in "economic spin-offs for Kuala Lumpur".

"As Asia is a particularly vulnerable area, we are concerned the region is being further exploited by the tobacco industry as it represents an important future tobacco market, "he added.

The NGO's stated aims include protecting the environment, sustaining development and human rights and assisting youth through a variety of self-help programmes.

A check with the official website for the congress and exhibition states that this "is the perfect opportunity for all players in the tobacco industry - from inside... or outside of Asia - to strengthen their position in the Asian region".

The coalition provides logical structured schedule of expositions, symposia and trade fairs at targeted global industry needs.

Other Asian countries that have participated in the annual event are China, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Philippines, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.

Tobacco-related deaths

On Sept 23, 2003, Malaysia signed the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

This requires governments to restrict tobacco advertising, sponsorship and promotions, establish new labelling indoor air controls, and strengthen legislation to curb tobacco smuggling.

Since then, Premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has launched a tak nak campaign targeted mainly at under-18s, but also at smokers in general.

The WHO has identified tobacco-related illnesses as the second major cause of death in the world, with 4.9 million dying each year.

Of these, 1.1 million deaths occur in Southeast Asia while, on a daily basis, there are tobacco-related 6,000 deaths in the Asia Pacific region.

WHO has said that, if current smoking patterns continue, these will cause about 10 million deaths a year by 2020.

Half of the people who smoke today - or 650 million - will eventually be killed and most of them will be in developing countries, it warned.