Otañez at international conference on tobacco control

Marty Otañez, assistant professor of anthropology, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences CU Denver, recently returned from Moscow where he participated in the World Health Organization (WHO) conference on tobacco control. He attended as a representative of the Framework Convention Alliance, a group of nearly 500 non-government organizations from more than 100 countries.

As a delegate to the sixth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP6) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), Otañez joined discussions related to public health treaty protocols. The focus was on supporting ways for tobacco farmers and farm workers to earn living wages, find ways to exit tobacco farming and to grow healthy crops.

Otañez’s continuing research and advocacy work on the matter also includes analysis of strategies U.S.-based cigarette manufacturers and tobacco leaf buyers use to profit from unpaid- or low-paid adult laborers and child laborers in the African nation of Malawi.

“The meetings showcased policy options and recommendations to address tobacco and the tobacco industry and their detrimental effects on public health, gender inequality, poverty and development,” Otañez said. “Additional work is needed to develop implementation steps related to livelihoods that are sustainable alternatives to tobacco growing as well as documentation of country-level experiences moving toward healthy crops and environmentally friendly agriculture in time for COP7 in India in early 2017.”

Otañez has co-authored a chapter in the new book “Tobacco Control and Tobacco Farming: Separating Myth from Reality” (Wardie Leppan, Natacha Lecours and Daniel Buckles, Anthem Press, 2014). He and colleague Laura Graen, a researcher and campaigner with For Changemakers, wrote the chapter titled, "'Gentleman, why not suppress the prices?': Global leaf demand and rural livelihoods in Malawi."

The book as an exposé on how the tobacco industry uses tobacco-farming myths to dissuade countries from implementing policies aimed at curbing tobacco consumption.

Otañez said tobacco leaf cultivated in Malawi ends up in cigarette brands such as Marlboro and Camel, and it is the focal point of global efforts to raise public awareness of tobacco industry practices to undermine health at the farm level in Malawi and other developing countries where growing tobacco is prevalent.