NEWSGLOBAL HEALTH

Music fans are slamming Provo, Utah-based Neon Trees -- famous for their No. 1 hit “Animal” -- for playing an international music festival sponsored by a tobacco company despite winning an award for anti-cigarette advocacy

More than 1,000 music fans have signed an online petition on Change.org asking Provo, Utah-based Neon Trees to pull out of an international music festival sponsored by a tobacco company.

The band, famous for their hit “Animal” -- which has been performed on the TV show Glee -- won an award for anti-tobacco advocacy in 2008 -- yet they are slated to perform at Indonesia’s Java Rockin’ Land festival July 22-24, sponsored by Gudang Garam, one of Indonesia’s largest tobacco companies.

Mother Jones magazine reports that the band has ignored a campaign by Marita Hefler, a PhD candidate in Public Health at the University of Sydney asking them to cancel their appearance at the concert. Hefler started her petition on Change.org, the world’s fastest-growing platform for social change demanding that Neon Trees - as well as Good Charlotte, The Cranberries and other bands pull out of the festival, which features scantily-clad models distributing cigarettes for free to concert-goers.

Think of your favourite band or singer. Chances are that you not only know their songs, you also know their favourite products. Whether it’s a clothing label or perfume, a car or a phone, the products they advertise are part of their image. You might even know about their favourite social causes – as the face of a charity which supports sick kids, a supporter of cancer or AIDS research, or a champion of the environment.

For kids in Indonesia, the product most often tied in with international musicians is cigarettes. The reason? Most major music events are sponsored by big tobacco.

The latest bands lining up as part of an Indonesian event being sponsored by a company selling the world’s most lethal drug include U.S. musicians 30 Seconds to Mars, Good Charlotte, Neon Trees, We are Scientists and Ed Kowalczyk, Irish band The Cranberries, and U.K. bands Happy Mondays and Blood Red Shoes. The event is Java Rockin’ Land festival, Jakarta from July 22 to 24 and will attract tens of thousands of Indonesian young people. Sponsored by cigarette company Gudang Garam, the festival is 3 days of top music delivered with a blast of tobacco promotion.

Funding by the United States for HIV-Criminalization continues in Africa.

In Africa, HIV criminalization is rampant and supported by many country officials. Ugandan parliamentarians submitted a bill last year that would make HIV criminalization a law. It has been revealed that U.S. efforts are providing funding to similar HIV criminalization efforts across Africa.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has been financing the Action for West Africa Region HIV-AIDS program (AWARE), which has been instrumental in creating and enforcing more aggressive HIV/AIDS policies across Africa. This has translated into developing a “model” HIV-specific criminal law. USAID has been funding these efforts since 2004. Prior to this effort, there were no HIV criminalization laws in any country in Africa. Now, there are at least 27 African countries with active laws.

We recently reported that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has been financing HIV criminalization laws within Africa. The program, entitled Action for West Africa Region HIV-AIDS program (AWARE), has been instrumental in creating and enforcing more aggressive HIV/AIDS policies across Africa. This has translated into developing a “model” HIV-specific criminal law.

HIV criminalization in Africa is rampant and supported by many African country officials. Ugandan parliamentarians submitted a bill last year that would make HIV criminalization a law.

HIV Criminalization does not work as a means of HIV prevention. The argument for criminalization goes something like this: "If a person knows they will be punished for infecting someone with HIV, they will think twice before engaging in certain behaviors."

In reality, it is not this simple.

Access to life-saving, low-cost generic medicines is critical to HIV/AIDS patients everywhere, but especially in developing countries. Over five million people battling the disease, across Asia, Africa and Latin America, rely on generic drug manufacturers, primarily in India. Indian pharma producers supply 50 percent of the world's AIDS medicines and an amazing 90 percent of the developing world's needs.

That supply chain is now threatened by a new free trade agreement (FTA) being negotiated between the European Union (EU) and India. Changes to intellectual property rules in the agreement, pushed by the EU, may severely limit or delay these Indian companies from continuing their public health mission.

Last week, representatives of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), the international medical humanitarian organization, protested along with thousands of people in New Delhi, urging the Indian government to resist pressure from the European Union to accept the new provisions.

Car racing used to be a major recipient of tobacco marketing dollars, a perfect venue for repetitive branding to a captive and youthful audience. However, since the overt branding of cars has been banned, almost all tobacco sponsors have pulled out. But not Philip Morris International. In fact, they're about to extend a controversial deal with Ferrari, which it has been a title sponsor of since 1997.

Ferrari claims that the sponsorship, which is reportedly for $1 billion over ten years, doesn't break any international laws. And in some ways that's true. They can't plaster the Marlboro brand over their cars or drivers' outfits like they used to. Tobacco sponsorship has been banned in the European Union since 2005; the Food and Drug Administration officially banned smokeless tobacco and cigarette sponsorships in sporting events last year.

But the tobacco industry is as conniving as ever. Just last year, Ferrari came under fire for using a black, red and white Marlboro-inspired barcode on its cars, which was allegedly part of a subliminal marketing campaign designed to circumvent the international ban on tobacco advertising.

Yesterday, the Solidarity Delegation from Asia to Quebec, a group of activists, trade union representatives and victims from India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan made their way to Canada. Their mission? To stop the exportation of Canada's asbestos, which is creating a massive public health problem for communities around the world.

As profiled in the Toronto Star, the delegation is asking Quebec's government not to support the expansion of the Jeffrey Mine in Asbestos, Quebec, which is responsible for a large portion of Canada's asbestos exports.

The existing open-pit mine is almost depleted, meaning that an expansion is necessary for operations to continue. An expansion would keep the mine going for the next 20 years, resulting in the exportation of around 150,000 tons of asbestos a year.

A known carcinogen, asbestos is banned in the European Union and over fifty countries. Its use in the U.S. has almost been phased out, and the industry has had to pay out billions in litigation costs.

Yet the high-strength, fibrous mineral, used in a slew of housing materials and other products, is sought-after and relatively cheap, so the exportation of the product continues -- mostly to developing countries.

On World AIDS Days, much of the focus is outside the U.S., on the countries hardest hit by the pandemic. Indeed, of the over 33 million people living with HIV/AIDS, over two-thirds of them live in Sub-Saharan Africa and over 30 million of them live in low- and middle-income countries.

But that ignores Washington, D.C., which has what Time Magazine calls a "surging epidemic" of HIV/AIDS. Around 3 percent of the capitol's population is HIV positive, the highest rate in the nation. The city's rate of infection is higher than that in Port Au Prince, Haiti, the poorest city in the Western Hemisphere and is similar to rates in Uganda and parts of Kenya. It is estimated that 1 in 20 D.C. residents are currently living with HIV.

Rather than a statistical blip, the reasons for the high rates of HIV in D.C. are political, cultural and deeply ingrained. A documentary film, The Other City, which profiles people living with AIDS in D.C. and premieres tonight on Showtime, explores the multitude of factors that have lead to the numbers:

"HIV/AIDS is wrapped in a thicket of American prejudices and discomfort about homosexuality, race, class, and drugs -- all of which fuel opposition to life-saving programs like needle exchange. Federal denial of funding for clean syringe programs has created both a higher incidence of the disease and helped shift its demographic to one that is increasingly poor, black and Hispanic."

In a way, the HIV epidemic in the capitol mirrors that of the world, with the burden being shifted to the poor and those least-equipped to deal with the enormous toll of the disease or unable to afford the drugs that make it a manageable condition.

Tomorrow is World AIDS Day, and towns, cities and communities are turning their buildings red and showing their red ribbons in support of HIV and AIDS awareness, prevention and treatment.

But rather than just wearing red for the day, there are other ways to actively participate tomorrow and beyond. Advocates and activists rally throughout the year, both nationally and internationally, to ensure that those living with HIV/AIDS get fair housing, that antiretrovirals aren't reserved for the wealthy few, that progress on a vaccine is progressing and that condoms aren't a taboo prevention topic.

Their efforts are paying off, but over 2 million people are newly infected with HIV every year, according to the WHO.

Looking to get involved beyond pinning a red ribbon to your lapel? Here a few suggestions:

Make a Condom Video
The Condom Project, established by a group of AIDS educators, activists and artists, is a project that works both in the U.S. and abroad to help de-stigmatize condoms and increase their use. In addition to creating condom art pins and spearheading the Life Guard, a non-traditional condom distribution program, it runs the "30 seconds: a visual voice" campaign. The campaign seeks to represent "the visual voice of youth around the world, and represents a non-traditional approach to reduce the ignorance, fear and shame associated with condoms." Open to young people aged 13 to 24, it asks them to create a 30-second video that desensitizes the community to condoms. The parameters for submitting the videos are online.

Become an Advocate
As a former volunteer at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, I can attest to the organization's far reaching impact. They provide prevention and testing information, organize the annual AIDS ride and play a leading role in developing sound HIV/AIDS policies at the local and federal levels. They also run and mobilize the HIV Advocacy Network (HAN) to "engage community members directly in our advocacy work." You can join the network -- regardless of where you live -- and help advocate for policies that fight for the rights of those with HIV/AIDS.

This week, health representatives from over 170 countries are gathering in Punta del Este, Uruguay for the fourth conference of the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the first global public health treaty.

But it's also become what Uruguay's President, Jose Mujica, describes as a "laboratory of confrontation" with Big Tobacco. Philip Morris International is suing Uruguay for the size of their graphic warning labels, which will cover 80 percent of a pack of cigarettes, and trying to make the country an example of their power over public health policy.

As a result, numerous non-profits, including Corporate Accountability International (CAI), Framework Convention Alliance, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and World Lung Foundation, came together to take out a full-page ad ("the world looks to Uruguay") in the country's leading newspaper, El Pais, on Sunday. The ad "lets the government know that the global community stands in solidarity with Uruguay in challenging Philip Morris International's lawsuit regarding the new graphic cigarette warning label," according to CAI.

Uruguay isn't the only country under assault from the tobacco industry, which is likely to face increasing regulation as countries begin to implement the global health treaty. On Sunday, the New York Times reported that the industry has "ramped up" efforts to try to weaken health regulation in advance of the meeting, including contesting limits on ads in Britain and bigger health warnings in South America and fighting against cigarette taxes in Mexico. In a press release, CAI details how the tobacco industry undermines treaty implementation by putting executives in government positions, marketing to youth in defiance of regulations and trying to sway regulators.

But the global tobacco treaty has the industry worried.