JUNE 30, 2004

Anti-tobacco treaty closes with 169 signatures

The World Health Organization's anti-tobacco treaty, known as the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, closed for signature on Tuesday with 14 countries signing up on the final day, to bring the total of signatures to 169 out of the approximately 200 countries in the world.

The last-minute signatories included the Bahamas, Cuba, Iraq and Afghanistan. The only countries not to have signed the deal therefore are Indonesia, Russia, Bahrain, Colombia, and a rag-tag collection of other minor states in Africa and central Asia.

The next step will be for the individual countries to ratify the treaty. This process is expected to take a few years but ultimately it is clear that the continued use of tobacco money in motorsport is coming to an end. This is a serious worry for teams which are largely funded by tobacco as it is clear that the kind of money which a tobacco company is willing to spend is considerably more than other companies wanting the same space on a car.

The treaty - the first global treaty related to health - has been a huge success for the WHO.