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Tobacco companies thwarted by Appeal Court but more delay for the advertising ban

Responding to the good news that the Government has won its appeal against the tobacco industry's injunction against the tobacco advertising regulations, ASH Director, Clive Bates said: "This is an important victory for the Government and public health. Sadly, the tobacco companies are desperate and will stop at nothing to block the advertising ban and, having failed in the Appeal Court, they are now going to try their luck at the House of Lords. It means yet more delay - but it should be a few weeks rather than months or years."

Bates added: "Even on the Government's own cautious figures, the ban on tobacco advertising will eventually prevent 3,000 premature deaths from cancer, heart disease and respiratory illness each year, almost as many as the total that die on the roads. That makes this a massive step forward for public health, but each day of delay and prevarication costs eight additional lives."

"Tobacco advertising is, quite literally, a life and death matter. Without new children and teenagers taking up smoking, the tobacco industry would just whither and die. Tobacco advertising is the start of a chain of events that leads to nicotine addiction and untimely death." Said Bates.

"Only the tobacco industry and people paid by them really believe that tobacco advertising is all about switching brands. The Government, the European Union, the World Bank and most respectable academics now accept that tobacco advertising increases smoking and therefore causes harm." Said Bates.

END 

Notes to the editor

The advertising ban was developed as EU legislation in directive 98/43/EC of July 1998 and will be implemented as Regulations in domestic law. The Directive essentially bans all commercial communication and sponsorship whose aim or effect is to promote tobacco products. The Government published the UK regulations on 17 June 1999 which were due to go into effect on 10 December 1999. On 29 October, the tobacco industry was granted an injunction to stop the ban being implemented, pending a ruling by the European Court of Justice on the whole EU Directive (which is due to be heard late 2000 or 2001).

An overview of the advertising directive is at: www.ash.org.uk/papers/eu-ban1.html
More detail on how it works is at: www.ash.org.uk/papers/dir9843ec.html
The UK regulations can be found at: www.doh.gov.uk/pub/docs/doh/tobacco2.pdf

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