wfn.org | Adventist Anti-Tobacco Activities

[APD_Info_Schweiz@compuserve.com]

August 30, 2000
Adventist Press Service (APD)
Christian B. Schaeffler, Editor-in-chief
CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland
Fax +41-61-261 61 18
APD@stanet.ch
http://www.stanet.ch/APD

Adventist Anti-Tobacco Activist Participates in 
World Conference

Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.      An international 
delegation met for the 11th World Conference on 
Tobacco OR Health in Chicago to create strategies 
for reducing tobacco use. The convention, which ran 
from August 6 to 11, attracted over 4,500 activists 
from four continents.
	
"The tobacco industry with their billions can never 
generate the enthusiasm, support, and friendship 
that was shown at the meeting," said Dr. Harley 
Stanton, a Seventh-day Adventist who has 
participated in the last five world conferences. 
	
Stanton, a health spokesperson for the Adventist 
Church in the South Pacific and member of the 
conference's planning committee, presented a 
workshop at the conference on team building among 
activists. Conference planners hoped to unify key 
anti-tobacco activists, teaching them how to promote 
legislative change in their countries. 
	
"This was a new and exciting initiative because 
about 60 to 70 percent of the participants had never 
attended a world conference on tobacco," Stanton 
said. The conference strengthened the delegates' 
knowledge about tobacco policies.
	
United States Surgeon General, David Satcher, 
presented a composite review of strategies that have 
proven successful in preventing and reducing tobacco 
use. His August 9 report included information about 
subjects from educational to economic strategies in 
tobacco control.  
	
The conference also recognized successful anti-
tobacco warriors. The new Luther Terry Awards, 
likened to "Nobel Prizes" of tobacco control, were 
given to six people at the convention. "I have never 
felt more palpable energy following a meeting than I 
felt following the presentations [of the awards]," 
Stanton said. He served on the
12-member international committee that chose the 
recipients from 200 nominations. 
	
The conference, sponsored by the American Cancer 
Society, was held in the United States for the first 
time in 25 years.
	
The Adventist church strongly promotes a tobacco-
free lifestyle and has developed several anti-
smoking programs including the innovative "Breathe-
free" smoking cessation program. (255/2000)