UGANDA

Phillip Karugaba
The Environmental Action Network Limited

My entry point into tobacco control was from the environmental perspective. I was a resource person at a workshop on environmental law. At the end of the workshop, the participants agreed to form an organization to litigate environmental issues. One of the issues identified was tobacco dust pollution from a tobacco threshing plant in the city.

A few weeks later while at the High Court Registry in Kampala, I stumbled across a lawyer who had filed two lawsuits against a tobacco manufacturer for personal injury claims. I offered to do some research for him on the Internet. I got in touch with E-Law of Oregon USA who put me in touch with Prof. Daynard who in turn put me on Globalink. Prof Daynard also got me invited to the Chicago Conference WCTOH as a speaker.

I was shocked and outraged at what I was discovering in my research about the health effects of tobacco and the conduct of the tobacco industry. I was also deeply disappointed in the complacency of the Ugandan Government in not doing enough to fight this epidemic. There is very little awareness of the dangers of smoking in Uganda and even less about the shameful conduct of the tobacco industry. Smoking is still considered socially acceptable almost anywhere. The local tobacco company a BAT
subsidiary, is considered a good corporate citizen sponsoring local sporting events and popular youth concerts. I cannot let them get away with this and I will continue to fight to educate the Ugandan public on the dangers of tobacco and to expose the deceit of the tobacco industry.

My interest in international tobacco control and the FCTC effort in particular stems from the realization that in developing countries we need global support to achieve tobacco control. Alone we cannot take on the might of the Government and the industry.

The Environmental Action Network Ltd is partnered with Polaris Research and Development, Inc through the San Francisco Tobacco Free Project's "Buddy System"