6December 2000 ­ Immediate release

Tobacco Advertising & Promotion Bill will save livesand must be given highest priority

The tobacco advertising and promotion bill will savethree thousand lives a year in the long run, and remains the most significantoutstanding item in the government's public health agenda.   "Tobacco advertising increasescigarette consumption and therefore causes more addiction, illness andpremature death.   It seems so cleverand cheeky, but tobacco advertising is really a seductive long termkiller" said Clive Bates, Director of ASH.

ASH reminded the government that a ban on tobaccoadvertising is one of the few remaining unfulfilled 1997 manifesto commitmentsand called for the Bill to be given the highest priority in next session.  ASH Director, Clive Bates said: “It's notenough that the bill has been included in the Queen's speech.  The government must ensure that the bill isgiven adequate Parliamentary time. Labour made a clear manifesto commitment to bring an end to tobaccopromotion.  It must honour that pledgeas quickly as possible.” 

According to the government's own estimates, banningtobacco advertising will eventually prevent 3,000 premature deaths a year.[1]  ,Clive Bates said: “Quite simply,this is a mater of life and death. Advertising increases consumption, resulting in more people becoming illfrom smoking-induced diseases and dying prematurely.  For every day of delay, eight lives are being lost.” [2]

ASH appealed to the government to announce an earlyend to tobacco sponsorship of Formula One when it publishes the Bill (expectedbefore Xmas) - Formula One has until July 2006 in the EU directive. Since thegovernment made its initial decision about special treatment for Formula One inOctober 1997, a flood of new money has entered the sport.  On 5 March 1998, Max Mosley of the FIA saidthat Formula One could phase out tobacco sponsorship by 2002: http://www.ash.org.uk/html/advspo/html/formula_one.html#_Toc424530296 

[1] The Tobacco (Prohibition ofAdvertising and Promotion) Regulations 1999 p.16.  The Government cautiously estimates that banning tobaccoadvertising will cause tobacco consumption to drop by 2.5%.  The Government concludes  “As mentioned earlier, smoking isestimated to kill 120,000 people in the UK each year. A 2.5% reduction in thenumber killed would mean that about 3000 lives a year could be saved.”  3000 lives per year equates to 8.2 lives perday.   See http://www.doh.gov.uk/pub/docs/doh/tobacco2.pdf

[2] The delayed implementation of a ban on tobacco advertising is due tothe ruling by the European Court of Justice which overturned the tobaccoadvertising directive 98/43/EC on 5^th October.  The judges ruled that the EU was notcompetent to ban tobacco advertising unless it crossed national boundaries,such as via television or in publications. Measures to control other advertising, for example, on billboards, mustbe determined by national governments. Therefore, the UK government is pursuing a national bill throughWestminster to ban tobacco promotion within the UK. http://europa.eu.int/cj/en/cp/aff/cp0072en.htm

[3] Theadvertising ban will be modelled on the EU directive - this ban all 'commercialcommunications whose aim or effect is to promote tobacco products'.  This creates a pervasive ban on all forms ofpromotion and sponsorship, but to deal with practicalities a series ofexemptions are specified.  For moredetails see, the ASH publication: http://www.ash.org.uk/html/advspo/html/dir9843ec.html

Contacts:  Clive Bates, 020 7739 5902 (office) 077 6879 1237(mobile)