1964

The US Surgeon General produced his first report on "Smoking and Health". Its conclusions corroborated those of the RCP and the US Surgeon General has produced annual reports since 1967 on the health consequences on smoking.

Doll and Hill published the results of a nationwide prospective survey on "mortality in relation to smoking: 10 years' observations in British Doctors". Between 1951 and 1964 about half the UK's doctors who smoked gave up and there was a dramatic fall in lung cancer incidence among those who gave up as opposed to those who continued to smoke.

1992 - Apr

ASH launches a guide for local authorities interested in introducing a smoking policy.

1990 - Feb

As part of the run-up to National No Smoking Day, TV presenter Anne Robinson records a series of four programmes charting her (successful) attempt to give up smoking.

Virgin Atlantic launches the first smoke-free flights to the USA.

1996 - Feb

The Government launches a 3-year anti-smoking campaign aimed at teenagers.

2002 - February

A New York judge dismisses a federal lawsuit by the European Union alleging US tobacco giants Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds sponsored cigarette smuggling in Europe.

1912

First strong connection is made between lung cancer and smoking. Dr I Adler is the first to strongly suggest that lung cancer is related to smoking.

1979 - May

The publication of a major WHO report, "Controlling the smoking epidemic", receives widespread press coverage.

David Simpson becomes Director of ASH.

1988 -  Jan

The EC proposes to introduce new upper limits on tar levels in cigarettes throughout Europe, and to legislate on health warnings to appear on tobacco packaging and advertisements.

"Quit and Win!", a competition to help smokers give up, is launched in the UK for the first time.

1994 - Apr

Terry Hurlstone is awarded £50 for the stress he suffered from tobacco smoke while visiting his daughter at Nuffield Hospital in Brentwood, Essex.

Nurses Against Smoking is set up by the Royal College of Nursing Respiratory Nurses Forum.

The Smoke-free Birmingham Project publishes a guide to smoke-free provision in the city.

2000 - July

European Commission announces that it is to sue a number of tobacco companies for their involvement in tobacco smuggling.

2007 - March

The Chancellor announces that the VAT on stop smoking aids will be reduced to the lowest level (5% instead of 17.5%) from 1 July to coincide with the implementation of the indoor smoking ban.

1760

Pierre Lorillard establishes a “manufactory” in New York City for processing pipe tobacco, cigars and snuff.

1976

"Death in the West", Peter Taylor's hard-hitting documentary about the illness and death suffered by American cowboys who smoke, and the contrast with the Philip Morris "Marlboro cowboy" image, is shown once on Thames TV. Philip Morris immediately takes out an injunction to prevent further showings of this film. In 1979, in an out-of-court settlement with Thames, Philip Morris acquires all the film shot for this film, whether or not it was used in the finished programme.

1986 - Feb

Roger Sims MP's Private Member's Bill to make illegal the sponsorship of sport by the tobacco industry is defeated in the House of Commons.

Feb Ann Clwyd MP's Private Member's Bill to prohibit the mention or display of the brand name, colour or logo of tobacco products during television broadcast is scheduled for a second reading in April.

For the first time, the Sports Council declares that it is opposed to the sponsorship of sport by the tobacco industry.

1992 - Nov

National Express, Britain's largest coach company, bans smoking on all its coaches.

1999 - Jan

BAT announces that it is to merge with Rothmans in a deal worth £5.28 billion. The deal means that the new merged company will be the world’s second largest tobacco company with 16% of the estimated global market of around 5.5 trillion cigarettes, just behind the world’s leading company, Philip Morris which has a 17% share.

The Warrant Office announces that it will be withdrawing the Royal Warrant from Gallaher. The company is given one year’s notice to allow time to change the packaging and remove the Royal Crest from its cigarette packs.

2005 - April

The Scottish Parliament passes the Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) bill which will ban smoking in all workplaces and public places. The law is due to come into force on 26 March 2006.

1572

Sir Francis Drake returns from the Americas and introduces pipe smoking to Britain.

1971 - Oct

Rank Leisure was the first of the major UK cinema chains to provide smoke-free seating in most of its cinemas.

1984 - May

The London Transport Passenger Committee and the Evening Standard newspaper launch a campaign to get all of London's transport made smoke-free.

1991 - Apr

The government announces that a new voluntary agreement will replace the one which expired in 1989.

1997 - Jun

The US tobacco companies agree a deal with lawyers representing 40 US states. Under the terms of the settlement, the industry agrees to pay approx. £368.5bn over 25 years to pay for the healthcare costs incurred by treating people with smoking-related illnesses. In return, the deal would stop further class action lawsuits and impose a limit on the amount of money required to pay future individual claimants.

Gallaher is awarded a prize for its 17-year sponsorship of the Ulster Orchestra. The award was organised by the Association for Business Sponsorship of the Arts.

2003 - July

Imperial Tobacco signs a Memorandum of Understanding with Customs & Excise in an attempt to drive down illegal trafficking of cigarettes. The move follows the suspension of seven employees in connection with an investigation into alleged smuggling at Reemtsma, Imperial’s German subsidiary.

The Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, issues a challenge to the UK government to ban smoking in public places. In his Annual Report, Sir Liam said such action would “put this country at the forefront of international best practice in tobacco control”.

1953

Dr Ernst L Wynder’s landmark report finds that painting cigarette tar on the backs of mice creates tumours. This is the first biological link between smoking and cancer.

1981 - Jul

The TUC endorses an anti-smoking campaign to help union members give up.

1989 - Oct

Establishment of ASH Workplace Services, a consultancy set up to meet the growing demand for expert advice on introducing smoking policies at work.

It is announced that from October 1991, it will be against the law to advertise tobacco on television anywhere in the EC. This will have the effect of banning cigar and pipe tobacco commercials from British TV.

Staff at a firm in Milton Keynes are offered a bonus of £200 if they give up smoking.

1995 - Sep

A jury in San Francisco awards $2m to a former smoker who claimed he contracted cancer from asbestos in cigarette filters. Milton Horrowitz sued Lorillard, manufacturer of Kent cigarettes, after he contracted the rare asbestos-related disease.

2001 - September

BAT sets up website that lists bars and clubs but whose real purpose is to promote cigarettes. ASH responds by creating a rival site to reveal the truth behind the BAT website.

Japan Tobacco, the world’s third largest tobacco company, announces that it is taking the European Union to court over the labelling rules that could prevent it from marketing its ‘Mild Seven’ brand. Under the terms of the tobacco regulation directive, passed in May, terms such as ‘mild’ and ‘light’ would be banned.

1889

Research by Langley and Dickinson on the effect of nicotine on nerve cells. They hypothesise that there are receptors and transmitters that respond to stimulation by specific chemicals.

American tobacco entrepreneur, James Buchanan (“Buck”) Duke forms the American Tobacco Company: a conglomerate of the five leading American tobacco companies.

1978 - Aug

ASH asks the DHSS to set up a new independent authority to control tobacco advertising and promotion.

A major article in the BMJ discusses the evidence that passive smoking is harmful to health.

Studies in the main medical journals such as The Lancet and the BMJ continue to show that smoking and taking the contraceptive pill raises the risk of thrombosis.

1987 - Aug

A survey of tobacco-sponsored sport on television shows that the industry receives the equivalent of 700 30-second commercials a year, 99% of it on the BBC.

1993 - Dec

Labour MP for Rother Valley, Kevin Barron, announced that he would introduce a Private Members' Bill to ban tobacco advertising. The First Reading was on 16 December.

The Advertising Standards Authority decide that further use of the Regal advertisements featuring the humorous character Reg would be unwise and requests that they be discontinued.

The Quitting is Winning anti-smoking campaign aimed at parents who smoke is launched in London.

2000 - March

Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds are ordered to pay damages totalling $20m to a 40-year old smoker dying of lung cancer. This case is significant because it is the first in which the plaintiff began smoking after health warnings appeared on cigarette packs. Previously, tobacco companies had used the health warnings as part of their defence to argue that smokers must have been aware of the health risks.

The Government announces a new strategy, costing £209 million over 3 years, to combat tobacco smuggling. This includes the deployment of 1000 extra customs officers, additional intelligence staff, x-ray scanners, tougher sanctions and penalties, and a public awareness campaign.

2006 - November

ASH joins health and fire-safety groups in the start of a new campaign for Reduced Ignition Propensity (“fire-safer”) cigarettes. The RIP Coalition is working towards the adoption by the European Commission of standards that would require all cigarettes sold in Europe to be self-extinguishing, in order to reduce deaths and injuries from fires.

1693

Smoking is banned in the House of Commons chamber: “No Member do presume to take tobacco in the gallery of the House or at a committee table.”

1975 - Apr

In response to the government's 1974 proposals, the industry agreed to: withdraw advertising from U certificate cinema programmes; to end the advertising of free samples; to allow the

1985 - Oct

The IBA decides not to accept smokeless tobacco product advertising for TV transmission.

ASH publishes a guide: "Tobacco advertising: what you can do". This lists the restrictions that are meant to apply to tobacco advertising and gives names and addresses for where to complain if these restrictions are breached.

1992 - Jul

The Government's White Paper, The Health of the Nation, is published. It attracts widespread criticism for failing to recommend a ban on tobacco advertising but offers a higher target of prevalence reduction (to 20% in men and women by 2000) and a 40% reduction in cigarette consumption by the same year. For the first time, licensed taxi drivers are promised legislation to enable them to ban smoking in their vehicles if they want to.

Two UK firms of solicitors report that they are inundated with enquiries after they advertise for test cases to bring a lawsuit against the tobacco industry in the UK, following the successful outcome of the Cipollone case in the USA.

A smoker with heart disease attends the Rothmans Tobacco AGM with ASH to ask the Chairman if he accepts that smoking causes death and disease.

Entertainer Roy Castle, leading a high-profile campaign against smoking after he was diagnosed as having lung cancer caused by passive smoking, receives an ASH Award. Other recipients include Hackney Council, advertising agency Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO and Ladbrokes Betting Shops.

Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister, accepts a contract with Philip Morris to advise the company on its strategy in the developing world and in Eastern Europe.

1998 - Aug

A US appeals court rules that the Food and Drug Administration does not have jurisdiction to regulate tobacco and that it over-stepped its authority when it issued regulations in August 1996 restricting the sale of tobacco products to children and limiting tobacco advertising and marketing.

2004 - November

Following the ratification of the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control by 40 countries, the treaty is due to enter into force within 90 days.

The Government publishes “Choosing Health”, a public health White Paper which proposes a ban on smoking in the majority of workplaces and public places but stop short of a total ban. Exemptions are proposed for pubs not serving food and private clubs.

The Scottish First Minister announces that Scotland will introduce a total ban on smoking in workplaces and public places.

1531

European cultivation of tobacco begins in Santo Domingo.

1971

Jan Publication of the second RCP report, "Smoking and Health Now". It endorsed the WHO report. This report also received widespread publicity and caused a permanent drop of 5% in cigarette consumption. A clear socio-economic divide in cessation had emerged: people in the "professional" classes" were giving up smoking, while people in the "manual" and "unwaged" groups were not.

ASH was set up under the auspices of the RCP to make non-smoking the norm in society and to inform and educate the public about the death and disease caused by smoking. Its first president was Lord Rosenheim, President of the RCP: its Chairman Professor Charles Fletcher, its Hon Secretary Dr Keith Ball, and its first director Dr John Dunwoody.

1983 - Dec

The fourth Royal College of Physicians Report, "Health or Smoking?", is published. For the first time, the report examines the health risks of passive smoking, but as before, it provides a wealth of data to support its assertion that over 100,000 people die every year from smoking-related illness in the UK, and it calls for an end to tobacco advertising and promotion.

1990 - Dec

BMA, ASH and the Coronary Prevention Group call for a 32p rise in cigarette tax at the next Budget, to bring prices back into line with 1987 levels.

Members of the British Thoracic Society, doctors who treat chest complaints, announce that they will be joining the tobacco control campaign and pressing for effective legislation on tobacco use. This initiative later becomes "Doctors for Tobacco Law".

The government ban on the sale of oral snuff products in the UK is overturned because of a legal technicality.

1996 - Dec

Gallaher announces that it is to close its factory in Hyde, Lancashire with the loss of 950 jobs.

Two families of lung cancer victims file product liability suits in France. This is the first action of its kind in the country.

Data released by the Health Education Authority reveal that the annual death toll from smoking-related diseases in the UK is now at least 120,000.

2003 - January

New, large health warnings start to appear on cigarette packs as required by the EU tobacco product directive. The stark messages include: “Smoking clogs the arteries and causes heart attacks and strokes” and the first warning about addiction: “Smoking is highly addictive, don’t start.”

1943 Advertising:

Philip Morris places an ad in the US National Medical Journal which reads: “Don’t smoke is advice hard for patients to swallow. May we suggest instead ‘Smoking Philip Morris?’ Tests showed three out of every four cases of smokers’ cough cleared on changing to Philip Morris. Why not observe the results for yourself?”

1980 - Dec

The Government announces a new voluntary agreement with the tobacco industry, which was only in force for a very short time. Four new health warnings are introduced and more space is allocated to them on posters. The industry agrees to cut its expenditure on poster advertising by 30%. It also agrees to take steps not to put posters within view of schools, although the clause is vaguely worded. ASH, the BMA and a number of MPs describe the agreement as weak and ineffective. ASH vows that its long-term campaign to see all tobacco advertising banned by law will continue.

1989 - Apr

The EC announces its intention to introduce legislation throughout Europe restricting tobacco advertising and promotion.

1995 - Apr

A major American study concludes that passive smoking is a cause of heart disease in non-smokers.

2001 - May

EU directive requiring bigger, bolder health warnings on tobacco packaging becomes law. Measures to be phased in from 30 September 2002 include increasing the size of health warnings to cover 30% and 40% of the main pack faces; a reduction in maximum tar yields from 12% to 10%, with maximum yields imposed for nicotine and carbon monoxide; removal of misleading descriptors such as “light” and “mild”; and a requirement by tobacco companies to disclose ingredients and additives by brand.

A new European Union directive that would place some restrictions on tobacco advertising is published. Under the proposals all press and radio advertising for tobacco would be banned, as would tobacco sponsorship of sport for events which take place in more than one EU country. Indirect advertising and point of sale advertising are not covered by the draft directive.

The US company Star Scientific announces that it is to test market a novel tobacco product called cigaletts which look and taste like mints. The prime ingredient is powdered tobacco mixed with eucalyptus and mint flavourings. The company says it aims to encourage smokers to use the product in places where they cannot smoke.

1853-1856

Crimean War: British soldiers learn how cheap and convenient the cigarettes used by their Turkish allies are and bring the practice back to England.

1978

The Independent Broadcasting Authority publishes a Code of Advertising Standards which regulates all commercial TV and radio broadcasting. Cigarettes and cigarette tobacco are "unacceptable products" not to be advertised on commercial radio.

Throughout the year, the State Express Challenge sports sponsorship scheme causes widespread media discussion of the ethics of tobacco sports sponsorship. Prizes are offered to sportsmen and women in various disciplines and advertisements for the scheme appear regularly. Some prominent athletes, including Geoff Capes, Alan Pascoe and Brendan Foster make their opposition to the scheme public and the involvement of the Sports Aid Foundation causes several MPs to protest about the scheme.

1987 - Mar

Reorganisation of the HEC as the Health Education Authority and SHEU as Scottish Health Education Group. Bodies for Wales (Health Promotion Authority for Wales) and Northern Ireland (HPANI) were set up.

1993 - Aug

The Advertising Standards Authority upholds a complaint against an RJ Reynolds Camel advertisement for portraying smoking as adventurous and linking it to physical prowess.

Nicotine patches are removed from the list of drugs which may be prescribed by GPs under the NHS.

British Airways announces it will make some European flights of under 90 minutes smoke-free.

Harry Elphick, a smoker, dies whilst awaiting treatment for heart disease. His widow claims that he was denied treatment at the Wythenshawe Hospital because he was a smoker.

A report by the Health Education Authority shows that opportunistic advice from a GP can help a small but significant number (5%) of patients to give up.

1999 - November

A new directive on tobacco regulation is adopted by the European Commission. The directive is designed to replace existing laws on health warnings and tar yields. In addition, it calls for disclosure of all ingredients and additives and the prohibition of misleading descriptors such as “mild” and “light”.

2006 - May

The Government launches a consultation on proposals to include picture warnings on tobacco products.

1614

King Philip II of Spain establishes Seville as tobacco centre of the world. Seville becomes world centre for production of cigars. European cigarette use begins here as beggars patch together tobacco from used cigars and roll them in paper.

First sale of native Virginia tobacco in England. Virginia colony enters world tobacco market under English protection.

1974 - Sep

As holder of a single share, ASH put several questions concerning smoking and health forward at Rothmans AGM. Since then, ASH representatives attend most tobacco AGMs for the same purpose.

1985 - May

Speaking during a Northern Ireland Assembly debate on National No Smoking Day, Lord Dunleath reveals that part of the reason why he resigned as Chairman of Carreras Rothman (Northern Ireland) in 1983 was that: "I could not get it squared with my conscience...I felt unhappy about it, and about the rather subtle and covert advertising of tobacco that takes place..."

1992 - Jan

A comprehensive review of research on the health effects of passive smoking on babies and children is published

A Scottish nurse, May Dryden, loses a case for constructive dismissal after her employer, the Greater Glasgow Health Board, made all its premises smoke-free

The BMA publishes Putting women in the picture, a Europe-wide survey of women's magazines and their editorial and advertising policy on tobacco

MEPs in the European Parliament vote in favour of banning tobacco advertising

1998 - Apr

ASH publishes research to show that smokers who switch to low tar cigarettes in the belief that they are safer, are being misled by advertising which promotes these products as being ‘mild’ or ‘light’. The research showed that machines used to denote tar and nicotine levels do not give a true measurement of the amount of tar and nicotine consumed by the typical smoker.

2004 - July

For the second year running, The Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, provides powerful evidence to support the case for smokefree workplaces. In his annual report on the state of public health, he concludes that smokefree workplaces would bring a net benefit to society of between £2.3 and £.7 billion a year.

1968

The Health Education Council (HEC - later reorganised as the Health Education Authority, or HEA) was established by Government to replace the existing Central Council for Health Education in England and Wales. The Scottish Health Education Unit (SHEU, later SHEG, now HEBS - Health Education Board for Scotland) was established to cover similar activities in Scotland.

1982 - Dec

The report of the enquiry on the fire at Goodge Street Underground station calls for smoking to be banned on the Underground immediately.

1990 - Aug

Joan Clay, a civil servant suffering from chest illness which is aggravated by tobacco smoke, wins a historic ruling that injury caused by passive smoking can be ruled an "industrial accident". Miss Clay's victory is based on special circumstances, but is nonetheless an important precedent.

The IBA orders Rothmans International to remove logos and brand names from a yacht entered in a race or face the withdrawal of television coverage of the event.

1996 - Jul

The 300 former smokers who were suing the tobacco industry lose their appeal against the withdrawal of legal aid.

2002 - August

Cancer Research UK launches draft code of practice urging universities and research bodies to reject tobacco industry funding. The charity says that it will not fund research at institutions receiving money from the tobacco industry.

1930

Researchers in Cologne, Germany, make a statistical correlation between cancer and smoking.

1980 - Jun

The second ISCSH report attracts criticism for refusing to recommend the publication of carbon monoxide yields of cigarettes.

1988 - Sep

A study and an editorial in the British Medical Journal confirm that there is a link between smoking and leukaemia, although it is not clear that smoking causes the disease.

An HEA-funded study on whether health authorities are introducing effective smoking policies in health premises reveals a worrying lack of action.

1994 - Nov

The House of Commons Treasury and Civil Service Committee produced its report on the increase of personal imports of tobacco and alcohol. It concluded that there was, so far, insufficient evidence to justify any departure from the Government's commitment to increase general tobacco duties but there was some evidence of large scale importing of hand-rolling tobacco.

2000 - December

The UK government publishes its Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Bill which aims to ban all forms of tobacco advertising throughout the UK.

It’s revealed that Philip Morris is behind an Australian fashion website designed to attract teenage girls. Visitors to the site are invited to clubs and events where Philip Morris’s Alpine cigarettes are heavily promoted.

1832

Egyptian soldiers credited with the invention of the modern cigarette.

1976 - Dec

Professor Sir Richard Doll and Mr Richard Peto published the results of their 20-year prospective study of nearly 35,000 doctors' smoking habits. They concluded that one in three smokers dies from their habit.

1986 - Sep

Publication of "Beating the Ladykillers", which looks at how the tobacco industry specifically targets women smokers.

1993 - Apr

 J.D. Wetherspoons, a chain of London pubs, introduces smoke-free zones in 54 pubs.

1999 - June

ASH and the BMA launch a report revealing the link between smoking and impotence. It is estimated that up to 120,000 young men are impotent because of smoking.

The Government announces plans to introduce a ban on tobacco advertising on 10 December 1999.

2005 - October

The Northern Ireland Minister announces that smoking will be banned in every workplace in the province by April 2007.

1603

Physicians are upset that people use tobacco without prescription. They complain to King James I.

1973 - Dec

ASH pressure led to the withdrawal of an inadequately tested part-substitute for tobacco.

1984 - Dec

Roger Sims MP presents a Bill to ban tobacco sponsorship of sporting events.

1991 - Sep

Publication of a new voluntary agreement which has provision for the legally-required new health warnings on advertisements. Other provisions include: a reduction over five years to half the number of shopfront advertisements that were counted in July 1991; minor tightening of the rules surrounding direct mailing; extension of the controls on advertising in women's magazines, with no advertising allowed in new publications until total readership and readership by young women has been ascertained, and no tobacco advertising allowed at all in publications where one-third of the readership is young women aged between 16 and 24.

In conjunction with ASH, the Institution of Environmental Health Officers publishes a guide to taking action on passive smoking.

1997 - Dec

The European Council of Health Ministers votes to ban tobacco advertising throughout the European Union. The landmark Directive, agreed by the narrowest of margins, will prohibit “any form of commercial communication with the aim, or direct or indirect effect, of promoting a tobacco product”. The draft Directive has to be approved by the European Parliament before it becomes law.

BAT confirms that it has purchased the Tyrell motor racing team which will be known as British American Racing. It is reported that BAT is to spend up to £300 million over five years on the new team

2004 - February

The British Heart Foundation’s hard-hitting anti-smoking campaign showing fat oozing out of a smoker’s artery is hailed as a success. One month after the campaign launch, BHF report that 10,000 people had contacted the NHS smoking helpline and 62,000 had visited the website in response to the advertisements.

The Government adviser Derek Wanless publishes a follow-up report on the future of public health in the UK. “Securing Good Health for the Whole Population” includes a number of recommendations to tackle the smoking epidemic such as a ban on smoking in workplaces, the need for stronger action to tackle smuggling, and the possibility of allowing nicotine substitutes to be made more widely available.

1965

After considerable debate, the government used the powers vested in it under the terms of the 1964 Television Act to ban cigarette advertisements on television. This was after consultation with the ITA.

1982 - Jun

An attempt by a group of Tory MPs, all with tobacco industry sympathies, to have the government grant to ASH withdrawn is not successful.

1990 - Mar

A study of children's attitudes to other people smoking, part-funded by ASH Scotland, is published to widespread publicity. It shows that most children are vehemently anti-smoking. 

Government ban on oral snuff products comes into force.

Members of the European Parliament vote in favour of banning tobacco advertising.

1996 - Mar

The American tobacco company Liggett breaks ranks with the rest of the tobacco industry and agrees to reach a multi-million dollar out of court settlement with tobacco control litigants. The company agrees to pay 5% of its pre-tax profits towards tobacco-related health care costs.

Cambridge University accepts sponsorship from BAT to pay for a professorship in international relations in honour of BAT’s former chairman, Sir Patrick Sheehy.

2002 - March

A survey carried out by ASH, the No Smoking Day charity and Cancer Research UK reveals that smokers are not only disillusioned with smoking but also highly over-optimistic about whether they are likely to quit, and how long it will take.

Philip Morris is ordered to pay more than US$150 million in damages for a smoker’s cancer death. The lawsuit claims the company lied to smokers about the health risks associated with low-tar products. The decision is the fifth defeat in Oregon and California for cigarette makers in suits by individual smokers.

The Government announces it will back the Private Member’s Bill to ban tobacco advertising introduced by the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Clement Jones.

1916

Cigarette smoking becomes widespread among soldiers as tobacco is included in army rations during the First World War.

1979 - Jul

Main post offices are made smoke-free.

1988 - Feb

The Government announces that it is to ban Skoal Bandits and other forms of sucking tobacco from sale in the UK, with effect from March 1990.

The HEA launches "Smoking and Me", a smoking education programme aimed at 12-13 year-olds.

Sheffield City Council announces that it will introduce a smoking policy affecting 33,000 council workers.

Latest Government figures show that although fewer than one third of UK adults now smoke, the decline in prevalence is slowing down. Between 1984 and 1986 there was no significant decline in the number of women smoking at all.

1994 - May

Kevin Barron's Private Member's Bill to ban tobacco advertising fails at its Report Stage in the House of Commons on 13 May. 108 amendments and 5 new clauses are tabled, a tactic which ensures that the Bill runs out of time.

ASH gives oral evidence to the National Heritage Select Committee on tobacco-sponsored sport and its television coverage.

2000 - Aug

Documents released by the World Health Organization reveal that the WHO was infiltrated by tobacco industry employees who systematically undermined the organisation’s campaigns on tobacco control.

2007 - April

The smokefree legislation is implemented in Wales (2nd April) and in Northern Ireland (30th April).

The Motion Picture Association of America advises the US film industry to “eliminate the depiction of tobacco smoking from films accessible to children and youths”.

1761

London physician, John Hill, performs possibly the first clinical study of tobacco effects. He warns snuff users that they are vulnerable to cancers of the nose.

1976 - Jan

The HEC launched an anti-smoking campaign aimed at young people.

Robert Kilroy-Silk MP presented a Private Member's bill to bring tobacco substitutes and additives under the 1968 Medicines Act. Dr Owen announced the government's intentions to place tobacco substitutes and additives under the remit of the 1968 Medicines Act.

The inaugural meeting of the all-party Parliamentary Group for action on smoking and health was held at the House of Commons. ASH's new patron, HRH the Duke of Gloucester, opened the meeting.

1986 - Mar

Announcement of the new voluntary agreement on tobacco advertising and promotion. A ban on tobacco advertising in cinemas and six new health warnings are introduced. The new warnings are: Smoking can cause fatal diseases; Smoking can cause heart disease; Smoking when pregnant can injure your baby and cause premature birth; Stopping smoking reduces the risk of serious diseases; Smoking can cause lung cancer, bronchitis and other chest diseases; and More than 30,000 people die each year in the UK from lung cancer. Tobacco advertising in certain women's magazines with 200,000 readers, at least a third of whom are aged 16-24 is banned and so is advertising for brands with a tar level of 18mg and above. The industry agrees to spend £1 million per year on publicity to make it clear that children under 16 must not be sold cigarettes. Reaction to the agreement from tobacco control campaigns, including ASH, was lukewarm.

1992 - Dec

Sales of tobacco from hospital shops cease.

1999 - Feb

A court in California orders Philip Morris to pay million in damages to Patricia Henley a lung cancer victim. The award is subsequently reduced to m. The release of thousands of internal industry documents revealing that Philip Morris and other tobacco companies knew about the harmful effects of smoking but concealed the knowledge, is believed to have influenced the jury in this case.

The first UK class action of 52 people with lung cancer is brought to an end. Lord Justice Wright rules that the majority of the plaintiffs have exceeded the 3-year time limit for personal injury claims. The lawyers for the plaintiffs decide that it would be too risky to pursue the case for the remaining few cases.

2005 - June

The widow of Alfred McTear loses her battle on behalf of her husband against Imperial Tobacco. Mr McTear died of lung cancer but began legal proceedings against the tobacco company before he died. Judge Nimmo Smith rules that to succeed, Mrs McTear would have had to prove not only that Imperial Tobacco caused her husband’s death but also that smoking causes lung cancer. The company had not admitted this, and it could not be assumed, the judge ruled.

1577

Frampton translates Monardes’ report into English. Tobacco is recommended for the cure of toothache, falling fingernails, worms, halitosis, lockjaw and cancer.

1972 - Jan

132 MPs voted in favour of a ban on cigarette advertising, 73 against. In an extension of the existing voluntary agreement, the industry agreed to: include "health hints" on cigarette packs (e.g. "if you do smoke, leave a long stub); cover up specific brand advertisements at televised sporting events; ensure that all brand ads at sports events carried a health warning; ensure that cinema cigarette advertisements, and those sent through the post, carried a reference to the health warning.

1984 - Jun

Bristol-based protest group AGHAST (Action Group to Halt Advertising and Sponsorship by Tobacco) submits a painting of a person dying from lung cancer for the John Player Special Portrait Award. The picture is short-listed by the judges but not given an award. Considerable publicity follows.

ASH produces a guide to 244 hotels and guesthouses in the UK which provide smoke-free accommodation.

1991 - May

The Commissioners of the European Community call for a ban on tobacco advertising. ASH asks the government to support this proposal and a major campaign on this matter is launched.

1997 - Jul

The Government hosts an anti-smoking summit to discuss ways of reducing smoking. The proposals are intended to form the basis of a White Paper on tobacco control.

2003 - October

The first British tobacco litigation case to reach the courts begins in Edinburgh. Alfred McTear, a former 60-a-day smoker died in 1993, aged 49. Shortly before his death he launched a civil action against Imperial Tobacco which his wife subsequently pursued on his behalf. Giving evidence to the court, Imperial Tobacco’s Chief Executive Gareth Davis denied the links between smoking and lung cancer.

A woman with asthma is awarded £17,000 compensation against a former employer who failed to stop smoking in her presence. Karen Whitehead, who is registered disabled, became ill in her first week but her request to work in a smoke-free environment was thwarted because the company failed to uphold the no-smoking rule.

BAT announces plans to merge its US subsidiary, Brown & Williamson, with its former rival RJ Reynolds. The deal is designed, in part, to protect BAT from current and future tobacco litigation.

1954

The Reader's Digest published an article entitled "The cigarette controversy" documenting the evidence on the association between smoking and lung cancer.

1981 - Sept

Sir George Young, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health, is moved to the Department of the Environment after it becomes clear that he will support and actively campaign for a ban on tobacco advertising and other legislation to control tobacco use. Patrick Jenkin, the Health Minister at the time, is also moved away from the Department of Health.

1989 - Nov

The first national Smokebusters Conference for children takes place in London.

Despite Britain's opposition, the European Council of Health Ministers votes to legislate for stricter, larger health warnings on tobacco packs and advertising throughout Europe. The Ministers also adopted a directive setting the maximum permissible tar level in cigarettes at 15mg by the end of 1992 and 12mg by the end of 1997.

1995 - Oct

A study reveals that the Government is receiving around £108m a year in tax revenue from illegal sales of cigarettes to children.

2001 - November

An investigation by the genetic policy research group, GeneWatch, reveals that Japan Tobacco has bought the right to develop vaccines and treatments for lung cancer based on genetic research patents owned by a biotech company. ASH described the move as “a kind of vertical integration of smoking and cancer, all in the name of profit”.

1901

Buck Duke buys the British Ogden tobacco firm, signalling a raid on the British industry. This prompts British companies to join together to counter Duke’s take-over. Imperial Tobacco is formed .

1978 - Sep

The Central Middlesex Hospital in London holds a successful "Smoking Action Week", with film shows, cessation counselling and public meetings. The hospital becomes the first in Britain to implement a 1977 Department of Health Circular requiring hospitals to introduce a smoking policy.

1987 - Sep

Launch of the European Commission's "Europe Against Cancer", initially a three-year campaign to raise awareness of risky behaviour such as smoking and dietary habits.

With the support of ASH, the Institute of Environmental Health Officers calls for smoking to be banned in restaurants and other eating places.

1994 - Jan

The British Medical Association states that it is wrong to discriminate against smokers in the provision of medical treatment.

The widow of a Royal Marine wins a war widow's pension on the grounds that the decades of smoking which caused her husband's death in 1989 could be traced back to his suffering as a prisoner during the Second World War.

ASH publishes a new booklet on smoking specially written for secondary schoolchildren.

The Department of Health issues guidelines designed to reduce the incidence of smoking in homes for children.

The latest OPCS figures on smoking are published: the number of smokers is steadily declining so that in 1992 28% of the population smoked.

A European network on young people and tobacco is set up at ASH Scotland.

2000 - April

The US Supreme Court rules that the Food and Drug Administration lacks the power to regulate tobacco.

The 1998 General Household Survey data show that smoking prevalence has fallen slightly in British adults from 28% in 1996 to 27% in 1998.

2006 - December

ASH issues guidance on varenicline - a new stop smoking drug launched in the UK under the brand name Champix. This is intended as an interim measure to help health professionals until the official guidance by NICE is produced.

1724

Pope Benedict XIII learns to smoke and repeals Papal Bulls against clerical smoking.

1975 - May

Two Thames TV documentaries on smoking in successive weeks made 160,000 people (5% of the audience) give up, according to a Gallup poll.

1985 - Nov

Publication of "The Big Kill", a series of booklets which provides data on the number of people in the England and Wales killed by tobacco, broken down by parliamentary constituency, area health authority and administrative boundary.

1992 - Aug

As a result of discussion between the BMA, OPCS and Coroner's working party the Home Office agree that doctors can include smoking as a cause of death on death certificates.

1998 - Sep

The newly elected Director General of the World Health Organization, Gro Harlem Brundltand, calls for a world-wide ban on tobacco advertising. WHO sets a target for the reduction of European smokers to under 20% of the adult population by the year 2015.

2004 - December

The tobacco advertising point of sale regulations are upheld and enter into force on 21 December. The only permitted brand advertising is now one single A5 sized ad or ad with equivalent overall dimensions. One third of the surface area must include a health warning.

New Zealand becomes the third country in the world, after Ireland and Norway, to ban smoking in all enclosed workplaces and public places.

1548

Portuguese cultivate tobacco in Brazil for commercial export.

1971 - Mar

Sir Keith Joseph, secretary of state for Health, affirmed the government's intention to control tobacco use through voluntary agreement with the tobacco industry.

1984 Jan

A major review article in the American Journal of Epidemiology confirms the link between smoking and cervical cancer.

Dr Eileen Crofton, Director of Scottish ASH since 1973, is awarded an MBE in the New Year's Honours List.

1991 - Jan

Publication of an ASH report revealing that nearly seven million women aged between 15 and 24 are exposed to cigarette advertising in the pages of women's magazines, despite the voluntary agreement intended to prevent such exposure.

Appointment of David Pollock as Director of ASH. Establishment of the UK-based International Agency on Tobacco and Health (IATH) under the directorship of David Simpson OBE, former Director of ASH.

1997 - Mar

In an unprecedented move, US tobacco company Liggett Group proposes a deal to settle outstanding litigation which includes a formal acknowledgement that smoking is addictive and can cause cancer.

2003 - February

The first phase of the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act is implemented. This brings to an end to tobacco advertising on billboards and in the print media, and bans direct mail, internet advertising and new promotions.

1947

A massive (43%) increase in cigarette tax results in a 14% drop in cigarette consumption among British men.

1981- Feb

A conference to mark ASH's 10th anniversary attracts widespread press coverage. Over the previous 10 years, smoking has declined to the extent that the majority of people in the UK do not smoke.

1989 - May

Richard Branson, Chairman of the Virgin Group, bans all tobacco advertising and promotion from his companies, at an estimated cost of £2 million over the next five years.

1995 - May

ASH complains to the ASA about a gift catalogue promoting Benson & Hedges cigarettes on the grounds that it breached the voluntary agreement on tobacco advertising by encouraging people to smoke.

The High Court declares illegal a mail-order scheme to import cheap cigarettes from Europe into the UK.

2001 - June

A former smoker with lung cancer is awarded billion in punitive damages against Philip Morris. It is the biggest verdict to date in an individual tobacco case. In addition, the Los Angeles jury awards the plaintiff, Richard Boeken, .54 million in compensatory damages.

Despite promises made by the Labour Party to ban tobacco advertising, the Tobacco Advertising and Promotions Bill, which failed to reach the statute book because of lack of parliamentary time before the General Election, is not included in the new parliamentary timetable. Health groups say the decision is a disgrace and bitterly disappointing.

The deputy chairman of BAT, Kenneth Clarke MP, announces his intention to stand for leadership of the Conservative Party.

The Committee on Safety of Medicines announces tougher controls on the stop smoking drug Zyban following a number of deaths by people taking the drug.

1856

 A debate about the health effects of tobacco begins in the British medical journal, The Lancet.

The first cigarette factory in England is opened by Crimean War veteran Robert Gloag.

1978 - Apr

Only high-tar cigarettes are affected by this year's Budget, which levies 7 pence on a packet of 20 with a tar yield of 20mg or more, from September.

1987 - Apr

Arunbhai Patel, the new owner of the Finlays chain of newsagents, announces that he will phase out the sale of tobacco from these shops over the next 5-10 years. Unfortunately, business problems obliged Mr Patel to sell the chain before he was able to implement this policy.

Launch of the “Look after your heart” campaign, designed to reduce deaths from heart disease. Cutting smoking prevalence and introducing smoking policies at work will be an important part of the campaign.

1993 - Sep

The Health Education Authority launches a teenage smoking campaign that aims to exploit young people's concerns about the environment.

BBC Broadcasting House and other central London premises go smoke-free.

1999 - December

The Court of Appeal overturns the High Court judgement on the advertising regulations but the industry announces that it will take the matter to the House of Lords. The Appeal Court orders that the regulations cannot be implemented until the matter is heard by the House of Lords.

2006 - June

The Advocate General of the European Court of Justice issues an Opinion arguing that the German government challenge to the EU Directive banning tobacco advertising is without foundation.

1620

Trade agreement between the Crown and Virginia Company bans commercial tobacco growing in England, in return for a 1 shilling/lb. duty on Virginia tobacco.

1975

Code of Advertising Practice of cigarettes to be taken out of the hands of the industry and to be monitored by the Advertising Standards Authority; to place tar groupings on packs and advertising. Imperial Tobacco, which then controlled two-thirds of the UK market, agreed unilaterally to remove brand names and logos from racing cars taking part in UK races.

1985 - Jun

The DHSS issues guidelines asking health authorities to introduce smoking policies in all health premises.

Publication of a report, "When smoke gets in your eyes", recommending that the Government ban cigarette advertising in those women's magazines with a majority readership aged under 25, prior to banning all tobacco advertising and promotion.

1992 - Mar

The Children and Young Persons (Protection from Tobacco) Act 1991 comes into force. This tightens up existing legislation on the sale of cigarettes to children under 16. The new law makes it illegal to sell single cigarettes and also requires warning notices, stating that it is illegal to sell tobacco to anyone under the age of 16, to be displayed at all points of sale including vending machines.

Thirteen pence is added to the price of a packet of cigarettes (a 5% increase in the real price) by the Chancellor in the Budget

A Tobacco-Free Charter, signed by many sports and arts celebrities, is presented to the Prime Minister by ASH and the anti-tobacco movement. The Charter calls for an end to tobacco sponsorship.

No Smoking Day 1992 has the theme "Kiss it goodbye" and features a still from the film Casablanca. Humphrey Bogart died of lung cancer in 1957 and his estate gave permission for the picture to be used.

1998 - May

The European Parliament votes by a clear majority in favour of the EU Directive to ban tobacco advertising and sponsorship.

A nurse who sued her former employer for loss of earnings due to illness caused by passive smoking loses her case. The judge ruled that her employer had taken reasonable steps to protect employees from the hazards of tobacco smoke and, in so doing, accepted the principle that employers do have a duty to take appropriate action to avoid excessive exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.

2004 - August

ASH and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health launch a toolkit to help employers implement smokefree policies. The kit contains the latest expert advice on issues such as the law relating to secondhand smoke pollution.

Before 1 BC

Historians believe native Americans began using tobacco for medicinal and ceremonial purposes.

1969

The Radio Times implemented its own ban on cigarette advertising.

Finnair claimed to be the world's first airline providing non-smoking accommodation.

1983 Feb

ASH Scotland publishes "The Scottish Epidemic", which outlines the cost of smoking in human life and illness in each Parliamentary constituency, local government region and Health Board area in Scotland.

1990 - Sep

Launch of Teenagers against Smoking, a Northern Ireland-based campaign. ASH Northern Ireland helped set this pressure group up.

A major medical study linking lung cancer in non-smokers to childhood passive smoking is published.

1996 - Aug

Grady Carter, a lung cancer victim, is awarded $500,000 against Brown and Williamson, an American subsidiary of BAT. The jury ruled that the cigarettes Mr Carter smoked were a “defective” product and that the manufacturers had shown negligence in not alerting smokers to the hazards of smoking.

US President Bill Clinton declares nicotine an addictive drug and grants the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate nicotine. The FDA also recommends action to limit tobacco advertising and sponsorship.

The Medical Research Council accepts £147,000 from BAT to study the relationship between nicotine and Alzheimer’s disease. The decision is widely condemned by the medical community.

2002 - October

A Los Angeles court awards US$28 billion in punitive damages to a 64-year old smoker dying of lung cancer. The same jury awarded $850,000 in compensatory damages to Betty Bullock, who blamed her addiction on the company’s failure to warn of the risks of smoking. The size of the award caused the Dow Jones index of US stocks to fall by more than 200 points. Philip Morris’s shares dropped by $2 – about 5 per cent of their value.

1933

Chesterfield begins running ads in the New York State Journal of Medicine, with claims such as: “Just as pure as the water you drink … and practically untouched by human hands.”

The Children’s Act is repealed and replaced by the Children and Young Persons Act. Under Section 7 of the Act it was made illegal to sell cigarettes to children under 16.

1980 - Jul

The Social Services Committee, reporting to the Government on prenatal mortality, asks for all tobacco advertising to be banned and for other legislative methods to control tobacco use.

1988 - Oct

British Airways bans smoking on domestic flights. 

At the inquest into the deaths of 31 people in the King's Cross Underground station fire in November 1987, a forensic scientist says that the fire was probably caused by a smoker's discarded match.

1994 - Dec

The details of the new Voluntary Agreement on tobacco advertising and promotion, announced in May 94, were published. Measures include increasing the size of health warnings on posters and banning tobacco advertising on billboards within 200m of school entrances.

A Parliamentary committee report on sports sponsorship and television coverage recommended that no further sporting events sponsored by tobacco companies should be broadcast once existing contracts have expired. The Heritage Secretary, Stephen Dorrell, rejected the report.

The Government launched a three year national anti-smoking campaign in England. The £13.5 million project is aimed at adults and particularly parents who are risking their children's health by exposing them to passive smoking.

Labour MP for Worsley, Terry Lewis, announced his intention to sponsor a Bill to increase the size and legibility of health warnings on tobacco packs.

Tessa Jowell MP, who came fourteenth in the Private Members' Ballot, sponsored a Bill to ban smoking in public places and the workplace.

2001 - January

New research shows that a ban on tobacco sponsorship would pose no threat to the future of Formula One motor racing. Furthermore, the report by a marketing expert argues that there is no need to allow the sport until 2006 to find alternative sponsors as there are many non-tobacco companies ready to take the place of the cigarette companies.

1836

Samuel Green of the New England Almanack writes that tobacco is an insecticide, a poison, a filthy habit, and can kill a man.

1977 - Jan

The HEC launched a TV campaign focusing on the rights of non-smokers and smoking by women.

ASH submitted evidence to the Royal Commission on the National Health Service, recommending a "health levy" on cigarettes to pay for the cost of treating smoking-related diseases.

1987

An Institute of Directors poll revealed that 75% of managers would be willing to ban or restrict smoking at work if asked to do so by employees.

1993 - May

All Cathay Pacific Airways flights between Hong Kong and London Heathrow are to be smoke-free.

A study shows that tobacco alters DNA in the lining of the cervix and that the correlation is strong enough to point to smoking as a causative factor of cervical cancer.

The Sports Council announces its opposition to the sponsorship of sport by the tobacco industry.

All National Health Service premises go smoke-free on 31 May.

1999 - July

The Health and Safety Commission releases a draft Approved Code of Practice (AcoP) on passive smoking in the workplace.

The Parliamentary Health Select Committee announces that it is to hold an inquiry to examine what action the tobacco industry has taken in response to the scientific knowledge of the harmful effects of smoking.

ASH and ICRF launch a report on tobacco additives which shows that some additives increase the potency of nicotine and enhance the palatability of tobacco smoke.

2005 - December

A YouGov Poll commissioned by Cancer Research UK and Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) finds that 67% of respondents across the UK believed that all pubs and bars should be smokefree by law.

1604

King James I of England, in his "counterblaste to Tobacco", said that smoking is a "custome lothesome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black and stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless". He was the first to impose a heavy tax on tobacco.

1974

ASH published an expert report on smoking cessation clinics, calling for more effort to support these ventures. No health authority action was forthcoming.

1985 - Jan

The BMA's report on investment in tobacco firms by, among others, church and health organisations is greeted by widespread embarrassment and remorse from the bodies in question.

1991 - Oct

EC directive making tobacco advertising on television illegal comes into force.

ASH publishes a response to the Government Green Paper on the "Health of the Nation": "Ending an Epidemic - a manifesto for tobacco control".

1998 - Jan

Tobacco executives admit at a US Congressional hearing that nicotine is addictive and that smoking is harmful. The statements were in contrast to their testimony before the same committee in 1994.

2004 - March

Ireland becomes the first country in the world to ban smoking in workplaces and public places. Despite dire predictions of failure by sections of the hospitality trade, the ban is widely accepted and compliance reaches 97%.

1966 - Dec

The government asked the tobacco industry to withdraw cigarette coupon schemes. It refused.

1982 - Jul

ASH asks the Health Secretary to ensure that video cassettes are not allowed to carry cigarette advertising under the terms of the voluntary agreement currently under discussion.

1990 - Apr

Joe Ashton MP presents a Bill drawn up by Parents against Tobacco designed to tighten up the law against selling cigarettes to children.

The 7th World Conference on Tobacco and Health, held in Perth, Australia, concentrates on the issue of tobacco in the developing world.

1996 - Apr

BAT’s Chairman, Lord Cairns, admits that the company has spent more than £33m a year defending itself against tobacco-related lawsuits but also admits that it has not made any contingency arrangements to protect shareholders from tobacco litigation.

2002 - April

An Australian court dismisses BAT’s defence in a lung cancer case after the lawyers for the victim showed that BAT destroyed documents that could have had a bearing on the outcome of the case.

1925

In the US, Philip Morris’ Marlboro is targeted at women. Until the 1920’s women who smoked were considered to have dubious morals. A Marlboro ad questioned this, stating: “Has smoking any more to do with a woman’s morals than has the color of her hair?”

Other leading companies begin the pursuit of female smokers. American Tobacco Company tempts women to try Lucky Strike cigarettes with the slogan, “Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet”.

1979 - Oct

Sir George Young, Under-Secretary of State at the DHSS, receives press commendation for his commitment to the smoking and health issue.

1988 - Mar

Publication of the Independent Scientific Committee on Smoking and Health's Fourth Report, known as the "Froggatt Report". It concludes that there is a 10-30% increased risk of developing lung cancer if you are a non-smoker exposed to other people's smoke, and recommends making non-smoking the norm at work and in all public places where separate adequate provision for non-smokers is not possible.

It is estimated that nearly 3.5 million smokers took part in National No Smoking Day.

1994 - Jul

In the High Court Mr Justice Popplewell quashes the refusal of legal aid to over 200 smokers wishing to sue tobacco manufacturers for damages. The application is to be reconsidered.

The House of Commons National Heritage Select Committee recommends an end to televising of tobacco-sponsored sport on terrestrial television channels and that the Government negotiate with other governments similar controls on satellite channels.

Philip Kanal from Bognor Regis received £300 from British Airways in an out of court settlement for the severe discomfort he and his family suffered from tobacco smoke on a flight from Heathrow to Toronto.

The Cancer Research Campaign and Prowess Racing entered a team in the British Formula 3 motor racing championships. The car carried the slogan "Stop before you start".

2000 - September

The Health and Safety Commission recommends adoption of an Approved Code of Practice (ACoP) to restrict smoking in the workplace. The ACoP requires approval by government ministers.

A US federal judge dismisses two of the US government’s four claims in a lawsuit that seeks to recover billions of dollars spent by the government on smoking-related illnesses. Judge Gladys Kessler ruled that the government could not use the Medical Care Recovery Act to recoup costs but ruled that the US Justice Dept. could proceed with its two counts under the federal racketeering law.

2007 - May

A YouGov poll shows that 25% of adults in England say they will visit pubs more often once the smoking ban comes into effect.

1791

John Hill reports cases in which snuff caused nasal cancers.

1976 - Spring

The BBC programme Nationwide launched a widespread campaign to "Stop smoking with Nationwide" which continued for several months.

1986 - Apr

Passing of the Protection of Children (Tobacco) Act which made it illegal to sell any tobacco product to children aged under 16 - previously the law applied only to smoking tobacco.

During the following year, the BBC indicates that it might take action against some of the tobacco-sponsored sports events it televises. These include the Controller of BBC1 speculating that anti-smoking films might be transmitted just before or after tobacco-sponsored sports coverage; blacking out tobacco logos from a show-jumping transmission; threatening not to transmit snooker or sailing unless brand names are removed and health warnings displayed, etc. Few of these suggestions are ever implemented.

1993 - Jan

British Rail's Network SouthEast bans smoking on most of its long distance commuter trains.

Under the EU Workplace Directive, employers have a legal obligation to provide smoke-free rest areas in new or improved workplaces. Existing workplaces have until 1/1/96 to comply with the new legislation.

A passive smoking exhibition (for which ASH had provided advice) is opened at the Science Museum in London by the Health Minister, Dr Brian MaWhinney.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency publishes its final report on passive smoking. This states that in the US 3000 lung cancer deaths a year can be attributed to passive smoking and classifies environmental tobacco smoke as a class A (known human) carcinogen.

Legal aid is refused on appeal to 20 selected smokers wishing to sue tobacco companies for damages.

A full-page advertisement calling for a ban on tobacco advertising, sponsored by medical and health organisations, including ASH, appears in The Independent.

The Commons Health Select Committee calls on the Government to ban tobacco advertising and to drop opposition to the EC directive for a community-wide ban.

Veronica Bland, a council employee, wins £15,000 in an out of court settlement against her employer for damage to her health from colleagues' smoking.

Hugh Bayley MP presents a bill to ban tobacco advertising except at the point of sale.

1999 - March

RJR Nabisco Holdings sells its international tobacco division to Japan Tobacco.

2005 - July

The final part of the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002, banning tobacco sponsorship of global sports such as Formula One motor racing, comes into effect. An EU Directive banning cross-border tobacco advertising and sponsorship takes effect at the same time.

1585

Sir Francis Drake introduces Sir Walter Raleigh to smoking.

1973 - Feb

BOAC started to reserve a number of its seats for non-smokers.

The government announced that a new Independent Scientific Committee on Smoking and Health (ISCSH) was to replace the standing liaison committee. Its first priority was to produce guidelines for, and administer the testing of, tobacco substitute and additive materials.

1984 - Jul

Following a fire at Oxford Circus tube station, possibly caused by a cigarette, London Regional Transport bans smoking on all Underground trains.

1991 - Jun

Publication of the Government Green Paper, The Health of the Nation. The proposals include reducing overall smoking prevalence by one third, to 22% in men and 21% in women, as well as a reduction by 30% of deaths from coronary heart disease and stroke in under-65's by the year 2000.

Publication of the ASH guide Eat, Drink and Sleep Smoke-free - a guidebook listing hotels, restaurants and pubs where proper provision is made for non-smoking customers. The guide is launched at the London Hilton and receives extensive publicity.

1997 - Aug

A survey by MINTEL suggests that the number of smokers in Britain has increased for the first time in 20 years. Contrary to previous trends, the rise appeared to be in smokers in the highest socio-economic groups and among those in their late thirties and early forties.

2003 - November

The Presidents of 13 royal medical colleges sign a joint letter to The Times calling for a total ban on smoking in the workplace, including pubs and restaurants.

1958

The first health authority smoking withdrawal clinic was established in Salford.

1982 - Jan

ASH publishes a guide for health practitioners interested in tobacco control.

1989 - Dec

The HEA launches its £10 million teenage smoking campaign, targeting young people between the ages of 11 and 13. The campaign will run for five years.

1995 - Nov

A BMA study shows that three out of four of the most heavily advertised brands of cigarettes are among the top four brands smoked by 11-14 year olds.

2001 - December

Health experts call for changes to the regulations governing smoking cessation aids, noting that it is far easier for people to have access to, and to continue using tobacco than it is to get aids to help them quit. For example, certain groups in particular such as pregnant women, young people under the age of 18, and people with existing heart problems are discouraged from using nicotine replacement therapy.

1902

The American and British tobacco companies come to an agreement: Imperial and American agree to stay in their own countries and unite to form the British American Tobacco Company (BAT) to sell both companies’ brands abroad.

Philip Morris sets up a corporation in New York to sell its British brands, including one called ‘Marlboro’.

1979

Jan Laurie Pavitt MP presents a Bill, supported by ASH, to legislate against tobacco advertising and promotion.

1987 - Oct

Grampian ASH launches "Smokebusters", a club for children aged 11-13, which will encourage and support them in saying "no" to tobacco through a series of fun activities.

1994 - Feb

On 11 February the House of Commons gives an unopposed Second Reading to Kevin Barron's Private Members' Bill to ban tobacco advertising after a procedural vote is carried by 227 votes to 17.

The Government publishes an Action Plan to reduce smoking. The plan outlines 5 areas in which action needs to be taken: price, increasing awareness of health risks and providing support for smokers who want to give up, effective controls on advertising, protecting smokers from passive smoking and improving scientific understanding of the risks of tobacco. They announce the appointment of the new Scientific Committee on Tobacco & Health under Professor David Poswillo.

2000 - May

Two South American states: Ecuador and Columbia launch legal actions against Philip Morris for its alleged involvement in a conspiracy to smuggle cigarettes into the two countries.

2007 - January

The Government announces that the legal age for the purchase of tobacco will be raised to 18 from 1 October 2007.

1730

First American tobacco factories established in Virginia

1975 - July

The ISCSH's first report on tobacco substitutes and tobacco additives was published.

1985 - Dec

Labour MP George Foulkes introduces a Private Member's Bill to oblige employers to provide separate smoking and non-smoking facilities in the workplace, as well as increase the number of no-smoking areas in public places.

The BMJ denounces the tobacco industry-funded Health Promotion Research Trust as "taking money from the Devil".

1992 - Sep

ASH and Birmingham City Council hold a conference on smoking and schools.

1998 - Nov

A 6 billion settlement is agreed between the principal US tobacco companies and 46 states that had sued to recover the costs of treating people wit smoking-related diseases. The deal requires the companies to make payments to the states over 25 years plus an additional .45 billion to fund national anti-smoking campaigns. The companies also agree not to market to young people and to limit tobacco sponsorship of sport to one event per year.

2005 - January

A parliamentary select committee investigation into tobacco smuggling accuses the tobacco companies of not doing enough to tackle smuggling which costs the UK taxpayer £3 billion a year in lost taxes.

The pub chain JD Wetherspoon announces that it is to bring forward a ban on smoking in its pubs. Starting in May 2005, 60 pubs are to become smokefree, whilst the remainder will ban smoking in 2006.

1560

Jean Nicot de Villemain, France’s ambassador to Portugal, writes of tobacco’s medicinal properties. Nicot sends tobacco plants to the French court.

1971 - Apr

First voluntary agreement between the tobacco industry and the government drawn up. Its provisions included: all cigarette packs for sale in the UK should carry the words "Warning by HM Government: Smoking can damage your health"; all press and poster ads were to carry the reference: "Every pack carries a Government health warning"; and the industry agreed to establish a scientific liaison committee consisting of industry and DHSS-nominated scientists to explore less dangerous forms of smoking and to devise a way of measuring tar/nicotine levels.

1984 - Feb

National No Smoking Day is launched as a major UK event, subsequently run on the second Wednesday of March every year. The day aims to encourage and support smokers who want to quit.

ASH publishes surveys of smoking policies on airlines and in county and local councils throughout the UK.

1991 - Feb

London Regional Transport makes all its buses smoke-free.

The government announces its intention to legislate for tougher new health warnings, in line with EC directive requirements. ASH is one of many health bodies which submits a response to the proposed warnings and formats.

A landmark court decision in Australia is greeted with pleasure by tobacco control bodies worldwide: a judge rules that the Tobacco Institute of Australia's advertisements, implying that there was no proven case that passive smoking was dangerous, were "misleading and deceptive".

1997 - Apr

As part of the evidence submitted to a class action lawsuit in the US, the president of RJ Reynolds, Andrew Schindler, swears under oath that he did not believe tobacco was any more addictive that coffee or carrots.

A US federal judge rules that cigarettes are “drug delivery devices” for the delivery of nicotine. The ruling clears the way for the US Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products.

2003 - March

For the second time, a California appeals court upholds a $26.5 million verdict against Philip Morris in the case brought by lung cancer victim Patricia Henley. In 1999, a jury had awarded Ms Henley $51.5 million which was reduced to $26.5m on appeal. In its second appeal, Philip Morris argued that there should be a new trial but this was rejected.

A ban on smoking in all workplaces including bars is introduced in New York City. A poll shows the law is supported by 70% of voters.

1950

Drs Wynder and Graham, of Washington University, USA, published a study showing that of 650 men with lung cancer, 95% had been smoking for 25 years of more.

1981 - Mar

Cigarette tax is increased by 14 pence on a packet of 20 in this year's main Budget, the biggest percentage price rise since 1947.

1989 - Jun

David Simpson, Director of ASH, is awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.

Launch of the joint ASH, HEA and HPAW project "Bon Appetit", designed to encourage restaurateurs to provide smoke-free facilities.

1995 - Jun

A Crown Court judge upholds a magistrate’s ruling that non-smoking areas should be provided as a condition of granting children’s certificates in pubs.

2001 - July

Philip Morris commissions a report for the Czech government which claims that smoking has economic benefits because smokers die early and are therefore no longer a burden on the country. The company subsequently apologies for causing offence. ASH dismisses the report as “irrelevant and misleading”.

New research shows that just 30 minutes exposure to tobacco smoke by non-smokers is sufficient to have an impact on coronary blood flow. Researchers say this provides direct evidence of the harmful effect of passive smoking on circulation in non-smokers.

Following the failure of the government to include a bill to ban tobacco advertising in the Queen’s Speech after the June general election, the Liberal Democrat peer, Tim Clement-Jones, introduces an identical bill in the House of Lords.

1868

UK Parliament passes the Railway Bill which mandates smoke-free carriages to prevent injury to non-smokers.

1978 - May

Clause 1 of the Finance Bill, which provides for extra taxation on high tar cigarettes is debated in Parliamentary Committee and despite a campaign against the clause by the tobacco industry, it is adopted.

 A House of Commons Early Day Motion, tabled by Sir George Young and signed by 54 MPs, calls for a ban on tobacco advertising.

1987 - May

Mr Roger Sims MP, introduces a Private Member's Bill on smoking in public places and it is debated in Parliament. The Bill is eventually withdrawn, despite some support from the Department of Health and Social Security.

1993 - Oct

ASH launches the Breathing Space campaign for smoke-free work and public places. The Breathing Space pack informs consumers how they can approach restaurant owners, employers, schools, bus companies etc to convince them to go smoke-free.

Department of the Environment survey of smoking in public places shows that 66% of establishments surveyed had a smoking policy and that 95% of the public thought that separate provision should be made for smokers and non-smokers in restaurants, cafes and other eating places.

British Airways is to ban smoking on some flights to New Zealand and Australia.

2000 - January

The Canadian Health Minister announces proposals to increase the size of health warnings to cover 50% of the front of cigarette packs and to include images of diseased lungs, etc.

ASH and a group of investigative journalists release documents which suggest that BAT has been involved in tobacco smuggling as part of a global effort to recruit new smokers. The expose is published in detail in the Guardian newspaper.

2006 - July

Health Bill receives Royal Assent and becomes Health Act 2006.

The Government issues proposals to raise the minimum age for the purchase of tobacco from 16 to 18.

1660

The restoration of the monarchy: Charles II returns from exile in Paris bringing the French court’s practice of snuff with him. Snuff becomes an aristocratic form of tobacco use.

1975

The total number of deaths from lung cancer decreased during 1975 for the first time for more than half a century, in men only: the number of deaths among women continued to increase.

1985 - Aug

On the 20th anniversary of cigarette advertising being banned on TV, ASH writes to the Home Secretary asking him to make the BBC and IBA observe their responsibilities under the law and stop transmitting tobacco advertising in the form of tobacco-sponsored sport.

1992 - Apr

ASH publishes and sends sample copies to every English school of Smokescreens, a hard-hitting comic for use with 13-14 year-old pupils.

A former health worker in Australia receives £35,000 in damages from her employer for health problems caused by passive smoking

1998 - Jun

The EU Directive is formally adopted by the EU member states.

ASH publishes a report: ‘Tobacco Explained - the truth about the tobacco industry in its own words’. The document includes extracts from previously confidential industry documents which show how the companies mounted a huge cover-up operation to conceal their knowledge about the harmful effects of smoking.

Judge Michael Wright sets a January 2000 trial date for the first UK group action case brought by lung cancer victims against Gallaher and Imperial Tobacco.

The US Senate votes against the proposed tobacco settlement that had been agreed in principle by the tobacco companies and states’ attorneys general in June 1997.

2004 - September

The US Government’s civil racketeering case against the tobacco industry, originally filed under the Clinton Administration, finally gets under way. The government is seeking $280 billion from the “ill-gotten gains” it says the industry earned by selling to people who became addicted before the age of 21.

600-1000 AD

First pictorial record of tobacco being smoked found on Guatemalan pottery.

1969 - Oct

The HEC's first anti-smoking campaign was launched: posters asking "Why learn about lung cancer the hard way?" appeared.

1982 - Jul

Laurie Pavitt MP presents a Bill asking for all tobacco advertising to be banned.

1990 - Oct

Widespread publicity is given to a British Journal of Addiction study showing that more than half the children who smoke daily are able to buy single cigarettes from tobacconists.

1996 - Sep

Lawyers acting for the lung cancer victims who were refused Legal Aid to sue the tobacco industry agree to take on the case on a “no win, no fee” basis.

2002 - Oct/Nov

The bill to ban tobacco advertising, which began as a Private Member’s bill in the House of Lords, is passed by parliament. In order to comply with the EU tobacco advertising directive, the date for the phasing out of tobacco sponsorship of Formula One motor racing is brought forward from Oct 2006 to July 2005.

1939

“Tobacco misuse and lung carcinoma” by Franz Hermann Muller of the University of Cologne, is the first major report to find a strong link between smoking and lung cancer.

1980 - Aug

"Which" magazine publishes the carbon monoxide yields of 19 brands of cigarette in this month's issue and urges the Government to make this information generally known.

1988 - Dec

The Royal Navy announces that it is to end its 200-year practice of supplying shore-based staff with cheap cigarettes.

1995 - Jan

A new agreement on tobacco sponsorship of sport comes into effect.

A Campaign for Smoke-Free Family Restaurants was jointly launched by the Health Education Authority and the National Asthma Campaign. The campaign aims to persuade restaurateurs and cafe owners catering for families to provide segregated areas for smokers.

The Health Education Authority produced a guide to the best smoke-free places to eat and drink in London and the South East called ‘Rooms without Fumes’.

Oxfordshire ASH and Yorkshire ASH urged magistrates to include the condition that areas of pubs and bars licensed for children are smoke-free when implementing the Deregulation and Contracting Out Bill which allows children's certificates to be issued to pubs and bars.

2001 - February

A major survey of the lifestyles of 16-16 year olds across Europe reveals that Britain’s teenagers are near the top of the league table for the use of illicit drugs, alcohol and tobacco. In the UK, 20% of teenagers said they were regular smokers by the age 13.

1847

Philip Morris opens a shop in Bond Street, London, selling hand-rolled Turkish cigarettes.

1977 - Mar

A new voluntary agreement with the tobacco industry stipulated: a slightly strengthened health warning to appear on packs and ads; advertising of high tar brands to be stopped immediately, and middle-to-high tar brands by 1978; no new brands in these categories to be introduced; a new, stronger code of advertising practice to be introduced; and a code of practice for sponsorship to be discussed with the Minister for Sport.

 David Ennals, Secretary of State for Social Services, announced that the ISCSH, under the chairmanship of Professor Hunter, had given a limited go-ahead for the marketing of two tobacco substitutes, NSM and Cytrel. These products were incorporated into cigarettes which were still mostly made up of tobacco. The cigarettes were marketed as "safer" and eventually withdrawn after prolonged and vigorous protests from ASH and other groups on the grounds that the advertising was utterly misleading.

1987 - Jan

The Government signs a new voluntary agreement with the tobacco industry on sports sponsorship.

The Cannon-ABC chain of cinemas makes all its premises totally smoke-free after a successful trial smoking policy.

1993 - Jun

Imperial Tobacco, Gallaher and Rothmans International lose their case in the European Court to reduce the size of the health warnings on cigarette packets.

The British Heart Foundation and ASH Scotland launch a telephone helpline to help members of the public quit smoking and to provide advice to those engaged in helping smokers to quit.

British Airways begins trial non-smoking transatlantic flights.

The Institute of Actuaries and the Faculty of Actuaries publish mortality studies which show that women smokers are more than twice as likely to die early as non-smokers and men are 73% more likely to die prematurely.

The London Borough of Richmond imposes restrictions which will prevent smokers from adopting children under the age of ten.

1999 - September

A jury in Florida finds tobacco companies guilty of making a “defective and addictive” product, and for conspiring to hide the dangers of smoking. The class action, known as the Engle case after the lead plaintiff Howard Engle, is the first to go to trial.

The US Department of Justice files a multi-billion dollar civil lawsuit against the tobacco industry to recoup money spent on health care for smoking-related diseases. The lawsuit also includes a civil RICO (Racketeer Influenced, corrupt Organisations act) charge which would allow the government to seek a portion of any “ill-gotten” tobacco profits.

A voluntary code of practice, backed by the government is launched by the hospitality trade to reduce exposure to passive smoking in pubs, hotels and restaurants.

2006 - February

Report Stage and Third Reading of the Health Bill in the House of Commons. An amendment to make all workplaces and enclosed public places smokefree is passed by 384 votes in favour and 184 votes against. The exemption of pubs that do not serve food and private members’ clubs from smokefree legislation is removed.

The first Conference of the Parties (nations) of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is held in Geneva. More than 140 countries are now signatories to the treaty and are committed to its full implementation.

1605

As a result of the King's protestations the Royal College of Physicians held a debate on smoking. Many members - pipes in hands - dismissed the King's views.

1974 - Feb

The second edition of the tar tables was published, dividing cigarettes into high, middle-to-high, middle, low-to-middle and low tar categories.

1985 - Feb

London Regional Transport bans smoking on all Underground stations wholly or partly underground.

The BMA publishes a report which refutes the tobacco industry's justification for advertising.

1991 - Nov

The UK tobacco industry starts legal proceedings against the government concerning the size of the new health warnings on cigarette packs.

Publication of From the billboard to the playground, a summary of research showing how children are influenced by tobacco advertising 

More medical evidence links passive smoking with heart disease

Publication of The Smoking Epidemic by the HEA. This is a detailed survey of deaths from tobacco-related disease around the country. In the UK, 111,000 people die every year from smoking-related lung and other cancers, stroke, heart disease, arterial disease, chronic bronchitis and emphysema. The survey also has data on the cost of treating these illnesses to the NHS.

1998 - Feb

Internal tobacco industry documents released to an American court show that BAT knew at least twenty years ago that nicotine was addictive.

The Advertising Standards Authority rejects a complaint made by ASH that ads for Camel boots were, in fact, a form of tobacco advertising.

2004 - April

ASH, Friends of the Earth and Christian Aid join forces to launch a report criticising BAT’s record on the environment, health and activities in developing countries. Timed to coincide with BAT’s AGM, “BAT’s Big Wheeze” includes case studies of how tobacco farmers are exploited at the hands of BAT and how the company’s claims on environmental standards do not stand up to scrutiny.

Philip Morris International offers to pay billion to the European Union in a landmark deal to avoid lawsuits over allegations that it colluded in the smuggling of cigarettes into the EU. The company continues to deny any involvement in the illegal trade in cigarettes.

The European Union announces that it is to phase out the payment of subsidies to tobacco farmers. Tobacco is the most heavily subsidised agricultural crop. The new system is not due to begin until 2006.

1967 - Sep

The first World Conference on Smoking and Health was held in New York.

1982 - Aug

The BMA asks the Government to ban all forms of tobacco advertising.

BAT Industries apologises to the Government after Martina Navratilova is seen wearing tennis kit with the "Kim" logo on it at Wimbledon. The row over this incident leads to considerable media debate about the effectiveness of the voluntary agreement system.

1990 - May

A draft US report leaked to the press suggests that 3000 US citizens die each year from lung cancer caused by passive smoking.

British Rail announces that it will phase out all smoking carriages on commuter trains running into London from within a 30-mile radius. The reason for the policy is given as customer demand.

The Sunday Times, using material supplied by ASH, publishes a major article revealing BAT Industries' third world marketing activities. This leads to questions being asked by ASH and other shareholders at the BAT AGM.

Parents against Tobacco pickets the BAT AGM.

1996 - May

A survey commissioned by ASH and five other health organisations found that many children still links sports such as motor-racing are linked to cigarette advertising. The survey also revealed that children who smoke quickly become addicted to nicotine.

A South London school accepts £250,000 from BAT.

2002 - June

An Oregon appeals judge reverses a lower court ruling against Philip Morris that had cut damages awarded to the family of a dead smoker down to $32 million, restoring the initial $80 million punitive damages award.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (a division of the World Health Organization) publishes a report confirming that passive smoking is a cause of lung cancer in non-smokers.

1927

British American Tobacco acquires the American tobacco company Brown & Williamson.

1979 - Nov

The Coronary Prevention Group is set up. Its aim is to encourage diet and lifestyle changes in order to reduce coronary heart disease, including reduction of smoking.

OPCS figures show a sharp rise in women's deaths from lung cancer over the past ten years.

1988 - Apr

Liverpool City Council Trading Standards officers become the first in the UK with the power to prosecute shopkeepers for illegally selling cigarettes to children.

The Tobacco Advisory Council is forced to withdraw press ads, a video and a booklet intended to show that tobacco smoke at work is not a problem. The materials, based on research conducted at Imperial College London, which the TAC part-funded, apparently represented the research findings somewhat misleadingly.

1994 - Sep

A joint submission on tobacco taxation to the Chancellor of the Exchequer was made by more than 50 health organisations. The submission stressed the importance of regular tax increases on tobacco as a means of controlling tobacco consumption.

The first no smoking beaches in Britain were introduced at Bournemouth, Dorset. Three stretches of the resort's seven miles of sand are to become no smoking zones from May 1995.

A report on mortality from smoking in developed countries by Professors Peto and Lopez estimated that tobacco smoking will kill around one million of today's UK teenagers and children in middle age, and one million in old age, if the current smoking patterns continue.

The entertainer, Roy Castle, died from lung cancer on 2nd September. Roy Castle tirelessly campaigned against smoking and passive smoking throughout his illness.

2000 - October

Acting on the recommendation of the Advocate General, the European Court of Justice annuls the tobacco advertising directive. The Court states that only tobacco advertising that crosses national boundaries, such as TV, radio and Internet advertising should be a legitimate matter for European legislation.

As part of its response to the Health select Committee’s inquiry into the tobacco industry, the government orders an investigation into the allegations that BAT is involved in tobacco smuggling.

ASH launches a report – “Danger: PR in the Playground” which reveals the truth behind the tobacco industry’s PR strategy on youth smoking.

An independent American tobacco company, Star Scientific Inc., is granted a patent for a process that produces very low levels of the cancer-causing tobacco specific nitrosamines found in tobacco smoke.

2007 - July

England goes smokefree on 1 July. Early results show that within the first two weeks of the smokefree law, compliance rates reach 97%.

NICE releases guidance on the use of varenicline (Champix) as a stop-smoking aid.

US film producer Walt Disney announces that it will no longer permit smoking scenes in family-oriented films and that it will discourage smoking in films distributed by affiliated companies.

1826

Cigar smoking begins to become fashionable in England.

1976 - Mar

The ASA implemented its own new code of advertising practice governing cigarettes which had been agreed in August 1975. The long-standing Marlboro cowboy and Rothmans pilot campaigns were immediately withdrawn as a result.

A DHSS and NOP poll showed that 70% of the population - a majority of both smokers and non-smokers - favoured further restrictions on smoking in all public places.

1986 - Jun

Being subjected to other people's tobacco smoke "violates the right to health of non-smokers who must be protected against this noxious form of environmental pollution" - resolution passed at the 39th World Health Assembly.

Over 20,000 entries were received in the national "Scramble an ad" contest for schoolchildren to take a cigarette advertisement and change it into an anti-smoking advertisement.

1993 - Feb

Sir Richard Doll reveals the latest results in his forty year study of doctors. Smokers are three times more likely to die in middle-age than non-smokers and up to 1 in 2 smokers may eventually die from their habit.

ASH Women and Smoking Group publishes 'Her share of misfortune: women, smoking and low income'.

Abbey National building society institutes a total ban on smoking.

British Midland bans smoking on all domestic and international flights.

From 20/2/93 tobacco retailers and vending machines must display a warning notice stating that it is illegal to sell cigarettes to children under the age of 16.

1999 - April

BAT’s US subsidiary, Brown & Williamson reveals that it is developing a ‘safer’ cigarette made with tobacco that has lower levels of cancer-causing nitrosamines.

Brown & Williamson launches its website and uses this to public acknowledge a causal link between smoking and disease.

A second record breaking punitive damages award is made by a jury in Oregon against Philip Morris for “systematically lying” about the risks of smoking. The family of Jesse Williams, a 67-year old who died of lung cancer, was awarded million.

2005 - November

By 8 November, the deadline for ratification of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, 110 countries had become party to the treaty.

The Government publishes the Health Bill which sets out proposals for making workplaces smokefree. Despite widespread support for a comprehensive smoking ban, the Bill proposes that exemptions be made for private members’ clubs and for pubs that do not serve food. The measures will apply to England only as Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland have opted for comprehensive smoke-free workplaces.

1586

Some of the Virginia colonists return to England smoking pipes. The habit quickly spreads and tobacco takes root in English society.

1973 - Apr

The first tar/nicotine tables, in which information on the tar and nicotine levels in all generally available cigarettes was given, were published. The lowest was 4mg and the highest 38mg. The average tar yield of cigarettes then on sale was 20.6mg.

1984 - Oct

The BMA launches a major campaign with the aim of introducing a wide range of smoking control measures, including a ban on tobacco advertising.

The improved "Give Up Smoking" (GUS) kit for use in GPs' surgeries is launched by ASH and the HEC

1991 - Jul

Doctors for Tobacco Law, a coalition of 29 organisations representing virtually all the UK's 85,000 doctors, is launched. DFTL aims to work with the existing group of tobacco control agencies pressing for government endorsement of the proposed EC ad ban directive. Its first activity is to stage a widely-reported demonstration outside Rothmans International's AGM. They provide data showing that for every Rothmans smoker who dies during the year from smoking related illness, the company makes a profit of £35,250.

The government announces a series of new, larger health warnings for tobacco packaging, in line with EC requirements. This is the first time that health warnings are legally required, as opposed to covered in the voluntary agreements. There will be two health warnings on the packs from now on instead of one and they will include "Smoking kills" and "Protect children: don't make them breathe your smoke". They will cover 6% of the relevant face of the pack. The minimum requirement under the terms of the Directive is 4%.

Following representations by ASH, the Select Committee on the Environment recommends that the government should accelerate its promised guidance on the rights of people to smoke-free air at work and in public places.

ASH publishes a Brief on the EC Directive to Ban all Tobacco Advertising, which includes a detailed refutation of the tobacco industry's arguments against a ban on tobacco advertising.

The EC Parliament votes in favour of a directive to ban oral snuff products from sale throughout the EC.

1997 - Oct

In the US state of Florida a landmark lawsuit filed on behalf of 60,000 non-smoking flight attendants is settled out of court. The $300m settlement marks the first time that the tobacco industry has agreed to pay for damage caused by passive smoking.

ASH and the BMA hold a conference to assess the possibility of legal action in the UK against the tobacco industry by individual health authorities and other bodies.

The latest ONS survey reveals a 1% increase in smoking prevalence among teenagers aged 11-15. In 1996, 13% of secondary schoolchildren were regular smokers.

BAT Industries announces that it is to split into two companies. The financial services division is to merge with Zurich Insurance while the tobacco division is to retain the original name of British American Tobacco.

2003 - December

A website listing controversial documents that were supplied to a government inquiry into the tobacco industry is launched to the public. The site – www.tobaccopapers.com - includes briefings, brainstorming session notes and outline advertising campaigns for tobacco companies. The documents reveal the tactics used to lure young people and manipulate adult smokers.

The Office of Fair Trading launches an inquiry into allegations of price fixing in the UK tobacco industry.

1962

The first Royal College of Physicians (RCP) report, "Smoking and Health", was published. It received massive publicity. The main recommendations were: restriction of tobacco advertising; increased taxation on cigarettes; more restrictions on the sales of cigarettes to children, and smoking in public places; and more information on the tar/nicotine content of cigarettes. For the first time in a decade, cigarette sales fell.

The Tobacco Advisory Committee (subsequently Council, and now known as the Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association) - which represents the interests of the tobacco industry - agreed to implement a code of advertising practice for cigarettes which was intended to take some of the glamour out of cigarette advertisements. The code was based on the former ITA code governing cigarette advertisements on TV (before they were removed in 1964, with the co-operation of the ITA)

1982 - Mar

The Government announces two new voluntary agreements on advertising and sponsorship. The sponsorship agreement permits the industry to raise the prize money offered in sporting events to £6 million. All advertisements for these events will have to carry a health warning. The advertising restrictions have yet to be decided, but the industry announces its intention to spend £3 million a year on health promotion activities. The agreements are denounced as ineffective by ASH and the BMA.

1990 - Jan

Parents against Tobacco is launched. A coalition of MPs, TV and radio personalities, activists and members of the public, it aims to press for more effective legislation to protect children from tobacco. Its founder members include Esther Rantzen and Richard Branson.

A telephone advice and counselling service for smokers wanting to give up is launched by QUIT (formerly the National Society of Non-smokers)

1996 - Jan

A Shropshire publican reports that turnover has increased by a third since a ban on smoking was introduced 18 months ago.

Simon Hughes MP introduces a Ten Minute Rule Bill aimed at protecting children by banning all tobacco advertising and promotion and strengthening the law to stop the illegal sale of tobacco to minors.

2002 - January

Canadian research reveals that graphic images showing the effects of smoking are effective in putting people off smoking. Since the introduction of images on cigarette packs sold in Canada, 44% of smokers said the pictures had increased their motivation to quit.

1908

Children’s Act bans the sale of tobacco to children under 16.

1979 - Feb

"ASH Wednesday" is chosen by ASH as a day to campaign for smoke-free offices and public places.

1987 - Dec

Following the King's Cross underground fire, in which 31 people died, London Underground immediately bans smoking throughout the network and bans tobacco advertising. British Rail also bans smoking on a section of commuter line which runs through a deep tunnel in Central London.

1994 - Mar

A British Rail survey shows that 85% of travellers on Network SouthEast approve of the smoking bans implemented last year.

A report, Poor Smokers, is published by the Policy Studies Institute which highlights a growing policy dilemma in that tobacco taxes help reduce smoking among the majority but have little or no effect on those who smoke most and can least afford it: Britain's poorest families.

ASH publishes a briefing on tobacco sponsorship of sport based on written evidence to the House of Commons National Heritage Select Committee.

Yorkshire ASH and the West Yorkshire Smoking & Health Campaign publish a guide to smoke-free eating and drinking in Yorkshire.

2000 - June

Publication of the House of Commons Health Committee report into the tobacco industry. The main conclusion is that almost every area of tobacco the industry is under-regulated or poorly-regulated. Calls for the establishment of a Tobacco Regulation Authority. Of the tobacco companies, the MPs conclude that their “past records of denial and obfuscation militate against any claims they may make towards scientific objectivity.”

Members of the European Parliament approve the draft directive on tobacco regulation and vote to increase the size of health warnings to cover at least 35% of the front surface and 45% of the back. The Council of Health Ministers subsequently approves the directive but rejects the MEPs proposal on health warnings, accepting instead the Commission’s original proposal of an increase to 25% of each pack surface.

The Advocate General of the European Court of Justice issues an opinion on the European directive on tobacco advertising. He questions the legal basis of the directive and argues that it should be annulled. Although not binding on the court, there is an expectation that the judges will accept this opinion. The UK Government announces that if the directive is overturned, it will introduce new primary legislation to ban tobacco advertising. 

Launch of Zyban (bupropion), the first non-nicotine stop smoking aid to receive a licence. The drug works by de-sensitising nicotine receptors in the brain, thereby removing cravings caused by nicotine withdrawal.

2007 - February

After just six weeks of being smokefree, the European Parliament abandons its smokefree policy and reintroduces smoking rooms.

1753

Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus names the plant genus, nicotiana, and describes two species: nicotiana rustica, and nicotiana tabacum.

1975 - Aug

Following discussions with the industry and the department of Health, the ASA agreed to devise a new, stricter code governing cigarette advertising.
A survey by ASH showed that 86% of tobacconists were selling cigarettes to children.

1986 - Jan

The HEC announces that it will withhold grants from researchers and academics who receive any funding from the tobacco industry-supported Health Promotion Research Trust.

1992 - Oct

A legal opinion obtained by ASH confirms that non-smokers who suffer from passive smoking at work may be able to sue their employer for the damage caused to their health.

800 doctors and scientists sign a full page advert in The Independent newspaper calling for a ban on tobacco advertising.

The Department of Health publishes for consultation and comment a report by its Chief Economic Adviser, Clive Smee, which reviews the evidence that tobacco advertising affects consumption and that advertising bans reduce consumption.

1998 - Dec

The Government publishes a White Paper on tobacco control. It includes new targets to reduce smoking prevalence among adults and children; an NHS smoking cessation programme; a “clean air” charter aimed at the hospitality trade and plans to further restrict smoking in the workplace, through an Approved Code of Practice.

Four UK tobacco companies issue a legal challenge to the EU Directive on tobacco advertising arguing that it is health measure rather than a harmonisation issue under the single market provisions.

2005 - February

The first global health treaty – the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control – enters into force. The treaty requires countries to commit to implementing a range of measures such as a ban on tobacco advertising, measures to protect people from secondhand smoke, tax rises, and large clear health warnings on all tobacco products.

1571

Monardes, a doctor in Seville, reports on the latest craze among Spanish doctors – the wonders of the tobacco plant. Monardes lists 36 maladies which he believed could be cured by tobacco.

1971 - May

Following a campaign by ASH, London Transport increased the proportion of carriages in underground trains reserved for non-smokers from 50% to 75%, and banned smoking on single-deck buses.

1984 - Mar

Publication of a major work on the politics of tobacco. "The Smoke Ring", by prominent and respected campaigning journalist Peter Taylor, is a devastating account of how the industry contrives to remain powerful and in business in the face of widespread knowledge about the death and disease it causes. A "Panorama" programme screened the same day gives massive publicity to the book and its findings.

1991 - Mar

Publication of "Passive smoking: a health hazard", a detailed booklet summarising up-to-date research on passive smoking and designed for the general public. ASH worked with the BMA, the Cancer Research Campaign and many other health bodies to produce this publication.

Cigarette tax is raised by approximately 16p in the Budget. The Chancellor says: "There are strong health arguments for a big duty increase in tobacco."

A poll conducted to tie in with No Smoking Day shows that around three-quarters of smokers would like to give up.

1997 - May

The new Labour Government announces its commitment to ban tobacco advertising and tackle smoking among the young. Tessa Jowell is appointed as minister with responsibility for public health - the first time that public health has been recognised at ministerial level.

The Health Secretary, Frank Dobson, announces that the government will ban tobacco sponsorship of sport but that sporting bodies would be given time to find alternative sponsors.

A former pub licensee begins legal action against Scottish and Newcastle brewery for damages to his health as a result of working in a smoky atmosphere.

2003 - May

The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is adopted by the 171 member states of the World Health Assembly. This is the first internationally agreed draft treaty to control tobacco supply and consumption. The agreed final text covers taxation, smoking prevention and treatment, smuggling, advertising and product regulation. In order to become a binding agreement, it requires ratification by a minimum of 40 countries.

1951

The first large-scale epidemiological study of the relationship between smoking and lung cancer was carried out by Dr (now Professor Sir) Richard Doll and Professor (subsequently Sir) Austin Bradford Hill and published in the British Medical Journal. Doll and Hill interviewed 5,000 patients in British hospitals and found that of the 1,357 men with lung cancer, 99.5% were smokers.

1981- May

Publication of "The Ladykillers: Why smoking is a feminist issue", by Dr Bobbie Jacobson, former Deputy Director of ASH. The book attracts widespread press coverage for its detailed treatment of why tobacco use and tobacco advertising is a particular issue for women.

1989 - Jul

Birmingham City Council announces proposals for a package of tobacco control measures that would make all indoor public places and transport smoke-free by the year 2000.

1995 - July

Beryl Roe, a former employee of Stockport Council is awarded £25,000 in compensation in an out of court settlement for the ill-health she experienced after working in a smoky office for several years.

2001 - August

A study of 300 employees in Glasgow shows that non-smoking workers exposed to passive smoking at work suffer up to 10 percent reduced lung function.

The Californian lung cancer victim who won a record $3 billion award against Philip Morris is ordered to accept a lower amount or face a retrial, after a Superior Court judge ruled that the original verdict was too high. Richard Boeken agrees to accept the much lower $100m damage award.

1876

Benson & Hedges receives its first royal warrant from Edward, Prince of Wales.

1978 - Jul

Tyne and Wear County Transport Committee agrees to make all public transport in the area smoke-free.

1987 - Jul

Launch of a new pro-health campaign, the Public Health Alliance. One of its objectives is to expose and clarify the relationships between people in a position of authority and the tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceutical industries.

Publication of an HEA booklet, "Smoking policies at work".

The BMA calls for an end to the duty-free allowance of cigarettes.

1993 - Nov

Health Education Authority publishes The Smoking Epidemic: a Prescription for Change which assesses the impact of smoking in terms of GP consultations, prescriptions and outpatient visits and puts the total annual cost of smoking to the NHS in England & Wales at £610 million.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer announces that he intends to increase excise duty on tobacco products by at least 3% on average each year in future Budgets.

OPCS survey shows that, in England, 10% of 11-15 year olds and 23% of 15 year olds are still regular smokers.

2000 - February

ASH is recalled to give further evidence to the Health Select Committee regarding the alleged involvement of BAT in tobacco smuggling. BAT’s chairman Martin Broughton and Kenneth Clarke MP, the former Chancellor and deputy-chairman of BAT, are also called to respond to the allegations.

In response to questioning by members of the Health Committee, the Health secretary, Alan Milburn, agrees to publish the list of 600 permitted additives in cigarettes.

The Royal College of Physicians publishes a report on nicotine addiction which ranks cigarettes on a par with heroin and calls for greater regulation of tobacco.

2006 - August

New York’s Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, announces that he is to give US$125 million to worldwide tobacco control programmes.

1665

Samuel Pepys describes a Royal Society experiment in which a cat quickly dies after being fed “a drop of distilled oil of tobacco”.

1975 - Jan

ASH called for tobacco manufacturers and retailers to be made legally liable for compensation in respect of death or illness caused by smoking, in a submission to the Royal Commission on Civil Liability and Compensation.

1985 - Sep

Launch of "Project Smoke-Free", a major regional initiative against smoking in the North-West of England.

1992 - Jun

The first transdermal nicotine patch is available on prescription in the UK.

Hackney becomes the first London Borough to introduce a comprehensive smoking policy

Publication of the Royal College of Physicians' fifth report on tobacco, Smoking and the Young. 

The Cipollone product liability case in the USA is finally settled. The decision on the case, running since 1984, counters the tobacco industry's claim that such lawsuits could be barred by US federal law, and is expected to lead to more lawsuits. Mrs Rose Cipollone, a smoker for 40 years, died of lung cancer in 1984. Her late husband, and then her family, brought the case against the tobacco industry

1998 - Jul

A US judge rules that the Environmental Protection Agency wrongly declared environmental tobacco smoke (i.e. passive smoking) a dangerous carcinogen. The EPA said it would appeal the ruling.

A US appeals court overturns the landmark award of 0,000 made to lung cancer victim Grady Carter. The court ruled that Carter was outside the limitations period of 4 years when he filed his claim.

2004 - October

The tobacco industry loses its legal challenge to the government’s tobacco advertising Point of Sale regulations.

1492

Columbus discovers tobacco in the New World. He is offered “certain dried leaves” which, he records in his journal, “gave off a distinct fragrance”.

The Spanish explorers Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de Torres are credited with first observing smoking. Jerez became a smoker and took the habit back to Spain.

1970 - May

The Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) presented a report to the 23rd World Health Assembly on "The limitation of smoking". The paper was prepared by Professor Charles Fletcher of the Hammersmith Hospital, and Dr Daniel Horn. It called for an end to cigarette advertising and promotion, among other recommendations. As a result, the WHO Assembly banned smoking at meetings and affirmed the health hazards in strong terms.

1983 - Oct

The third report of the Independent Scientific Committee on Smoking and Health is published. It recommends the progressive reduction of tar levels in cigarettes over the next four years.

1990 - Nov

The Institute of Personnel Management publishes a guide to introducing a smoking policy at work.

ASH and the HEA publish "Beating the Ban", an analysis of tobacco-sponsored sports coverage on the BBC. Children interviewed for the report are under the impression that cigarette advertising is allowed on TV, because they have seen logos and brand names.

The first attempt to produce a draft EC directive banning tobacco advertising fails, although the EC Social Affairs Commissioner affirms her intention to introduce a new directive.

The PaT Private Members' Bill designed to tighten the law against selling cigarettes to children receives a boost when the first MP (Andrew Faulds, Labour MP for Warley East) named in the ballot for Private Members' Bills agrees to take it up.

William Waldegrave is appointed as Secretary of State for Health in place of Kenneth Clarke. Mr Waldegrave is a non-smoker and thought to be more sympathetic to tobacco control than his predecessor.

1996 - Oct

The Advertising Standards Authority upholds complaints about a Philip Morris advertising campaign which had claimed that the health risks from passive smoking were no greater than drinking chlorinated water or eating biscuits.

Scientists identify the substance in tobacco smoke that causes lung cancer.

John Dean, a 41-year old former smoker who had been suffering from Buerger’s disease (a circulatory condition) loses his legal battle against Gallaher.

2002 - December

The EU Directive on tobacco advertising is adopted. It is limited in scope, covering only trans-border advertising and sponsorship. However, it allows for Member States to adopt stronger measures.

The British Medical Association publishes a report calling for a ban on smoking in public places. It states that voluntary measures are not adequate to protect people from the effects of second-hand smoke.

1939-1945 World War II:

As part of the war effort, US President Roosevelt makes tobacco a protected crop. Cigarettes are included in soldiers’ rations. Tobacco companies send millions of free cigarettes to troops.

1980 - Nov

A BBC "Horizon" programme, "Smoker's Luck", wins press acclaim. It highlighted some of the less well-known effects of smoking such as gangrene, as well as presenting the advantages of giving up smoking.

1989 -  Mar

A poll shows that 79% of smokers think that National No Smoking Day is a good idea and around 5 million smokers will try and give up on the day.

1995 - Feb

Limited legal aid granted to a group of smokers seeking compensation for illnesses caused by smoking.

The "Put smoking out of fashion" campaign launched by the Health Education Authority to persuade fashion models and agencies that smoking and fashion do not mix.

Elizabeth Ashby, an asthmatic, was awarded £2,500 in an out of court settlement for illness exacerbated by passive smoking at work.

The Private Members' Bill to increase the size of health warnings, promoted by Terry Lewis MP, failed to proceed when it was talked out at its second reading on the 17 February.

2001 - March

New evidence of tobacco companies’ involvement in smuggling is published by a consortium of investigative journalists. The report covers the activities of BAT, Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds and others, and gives insight into the RICO action filed against the companies.

The Department of Health announces that nicotine replacement therapies are to be made more widely available, both by prescription and on general sale.

1852

Matches are introduced, making smoking more convenient.

1997 - Jun

The third report of the RCP, "Smoking or Health", was published. It provided an authoritative summary of research on smoking and disease, and made the strongest calls yet for government action to control smoking.

1987 - Feb

Independent Television ceases transmission of all tobacco-sponsored sports events.

1993 - Jul

Shelter, the national campaign for the homeless, rejects a donation worth £50,000 from a tobacco company.

Dr John Britton publishes a study into childhood asthma and smoking during pregnancy which finds that 39% of children whose mothers smoked 25 or more cigarettes a day during the child's first five years wheezed, compared to 29% of children whose mothers never smoked.

A report from Parents Against Tobacco reveals that 90% of local authorities believe illegal sales of cigarettes to children to be a problem in their area.

The Government publishes new regulations which strengthen the health warnings on tobacco products other than cigarettes.

A MORI survey for the Health Education Authority reveals that 51% of people favour a complete ban on smoking in restaurants.

Singapore Airlines offers daily non-smoking flights to London.

Health care organisations, led by the HEA and ASH, make their first joint submission to the Chancellor of the Exchequer urging the Government to raise the tax on tobacco.

1999 - October

The High Court grants an injunction by the tobacco industry to stop the implementation of the proposed UK regulations to ban tobacco advertising.

2006 - March

Scotland becomes the first country of the United Kingdom to implement smokefree legislation. Smoking is now banned in virtually all workplaces and enclosed public places including pubs and clubs.

1610

Sir Francis Bacon writes that tobacco use is increasing and that it is a custom hard to quit.

1974 - Jul

Dr David Owen, minister for health, announced in Parliament that he had asked the industry to agree to: allocate some of its advertising budget to health education; abolish cigarette advertising in the cinema; print tar group descriptions on packs and advertisements; use a stronger and more prominent health warning; abolish coupon schemes; and consider curbing tobacco sponsorship of sport. The industry later rejected most of these requests.

The ASH "Butt of the Summer" award was given to Kensitas, with its slogan "You get more out of life with Kensitas". ASH suggested this should continue: "You get lung cancer. You get heart disease. You get emphysema." The manufacturers eventually withdrew the ad.

Imperial Tobacco withdrew two brands called "Rapier" and "Stiletto" after ASH wrote to its Chairman congratulating him on choosing such apt names for products associated with death.

British Rail and British Airways increased the proportion of accommodation for non-smokers.

1985 - Apr

The HEC's latest TV ad campaign tells women that lung cancer is now killing almost as many women as breast cancer.

ACTS (Artists' Campaign against Tobacco Sponsorship) is set up. Founder members include Warren Mitchell, Derek Jacobi, Paul Eddington and Spike Milligan. Its first target is the National Theatre, which still accepts tobacco sponsorship.

1991 - Dec

The Department of the Environment publishes a voluntary code of practice on smoking in public places. If the public is present from necessity (health premises, banks, post offices, local government premises etc), no smoking should be the norm. If the public is present from choice, for example in cafes, restaurants, pubs and community centres, separate provision should be made for smokers and non-smokers, unless this is impractical, in which case no smoking should be the norm.

Midland Bank announces that in May 1992 its premises will become completely smoke-free.

1998 - Mar

Formula One’s ruling body, the Féderation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) announces that it would consider bringing forward the end to all tobacco sponsorship if presented with evidence that tobacco sponsorship encourages children to take up smoking.

The Government-appointed Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health (SCOTH) publishes its review of the evidence on passive smoking and other health effects of tobacco use. The committee concludes that exposure to passive smoking is a cause of lung cancer and heart disease in adults, while children exposed to tobacco smoke are at increased risk of cot death, asthma and other respiratory diseases, and middle ear disease.

A non-smoker with lung cancer, who worked for 30 years in smoke-filled pubs, issues legal action against Scottish and Newcastle Breweries and Whitbread, claiming that passive smoking has caused her illness.

2004 - June

The BMJ publishes the latest results of the famous “doctors’ study” that has tracked the smoking habits and mortality rates of almost 35,000 British male doctors from 1951 to 2001. The 50th anniversary study shows that the risks for persistent cigarette smoking are even higher than previously estimated: about half to two thirds of all persistent smokers will eventually be killed by their habit.

“Welcome to Norway. The only thing we smoke here is salmon”, read posters issued by the government to mark the implementation of Norway’s ban on smoking in all public places. Norway is the second country to implement a total smoking ban.

A MORI poll finds that 80% of Britons favour a law to ensure all enclosed workplaces are smoke-free. Support is strong across all social classes.

1967 - Oct

Kenneth Robinson, Minister for Health, announced in Parliament the Government's intention to "introduce legislation in due course to take powers to ban cigarette coupon schemes, to control or ban other promotional schemes and to limit other forms of advertising". This action was never in fact taken.

1982 - Oct

The Government announces a new voluntary agreement with the tobacco industry to regulate advertising and promotion. Advertising materials at point-of-sale and over a certain size will have to carry a health warning and video cassettes will not be allowed to carry cigarette advertising. Health warnings are modified and the rotation system which formerly applied is discontinued. The industry offers to reduce expenditure on poster ads and cinema ads by 50% and 40% respectively. The feature of the agreement which draws widespread and bitter criticism from the media and public alike is the industry's offer to pay £11 million over the three and a half years the agreement is to run to fund the Health Promotion Research Trust, which will offer grants to research a wide variety of health-related topics, except anything connected with tobacco use. One prominent surgeon comments: "It's like entrusting moral education about organised crime to the Mafia."

1990 - Jul

OPCS figures show that although lung cancer incidence is declining among men, it is still increasing among women, and in some areas it has overtaken breast cancer as the most common cancer among women.

Air Canada makes all its flights between North America and Europe smoke-free.

The HEA launches a £25 million campaign to prevent heart disease.

1996 - Jun

Guernsey’s State Parliament becomes the first government in the British Isles to impose a ban on tobacco advertising.

2002 - July

BAT launches its first corporate social responsibility report. To coincide with this, ASH publishes a critique of BAT, highlighting areas not covered by BAT’s own report such as the scale of death arising from the sales of its products.

1930s

Britain has the highest lung cancer rate in the world.

1980 - Apr

The BBC programme "Panorama" reports on the tobacco industry, revealing that the chairman of the Tobacco Advisory Council is on the Sports council, as well as showing in depth how the industry refuses to acknowledge publicly that smoking kills. The industry's third world marketing policies are also subjected to intensive scrutiny.

1988 - Jun

IBM announces that it will make its 60 UK buildings entirely smoke-free from September.

The ASH Awards were presented to individuals and organisations who had made a contribution towards promoting a tobacco-free society.

A USA court makes worldwide history by awarding damages against a tobacco firm to the family of Rose Cipollone, a smoker who died of lung cancer. The tobacco company launched an appeal against the award.

1994 - Oct

The latest figures from Sir Richard Doll's study of smoking and death among British doctors found that the risks of smoking are twice as high as previously thought. It now seems that about half of all regular cigarette smokers will eventually be killed by their habit.

2000 - November

The European Commission files a RICO (Racketeer Influence Corrupt Organisations) action against Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds in the US courts. The action is designed to recover excise duties which the EU alleges were lost as a result of industry involvement in tobacco smuggling.

Nottingham University announces that is has accepted £3.8 million from British American Tobacco to fund an International Centre for Social Responsibility. This results in a number of academics withdrawing from the University in protest.

The first inter-governmental negotiations on the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control are held in Geneva. The target date for ratification of a global treaty on tobacco is set for 2003.

1830s

First organised anti-tobacco movement in the US begins as an adjunct to the temperance movement.

1976 - Apr

Cigarette taxation increased by 3.5p in the Budget. "Specific" and "ad valorem" taxes, a two-tier system designed to ease tax harmonisation within the EEC, were introduced.

1986 - Aug

BMA publishes "Great Expectorations", a study of the tobacco industry's marketing tactics worldwide. There is a large amount of press coverage.

Tobacco advertising is banned from Tyne and Wear metro after a survey showed that tobacco advertising was more prevalent in working-class areas served by the network than in middle-class areas.

1993 - Mar

Virginia Bottomley, Health Secretary, responds to the Commons Health Select Committee report on tobacco advertising. The Government believes that there is a relationship between tobacco advertising and cigarette consumption but that the nature and extent of the relationship remain debatable and therefore there is currently no justification for a ban on tobacco advertising.

Birmingham Health Education Unit and ASH publish Smoking in Schools which offers guidance on developing smoking policies in schools.

The British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering recommends that babies and children up to the age of two should not be placed in households with smokers when equally suitable non-smokers are available.

1999 - May

The World Health Assembly backs a resolution to begin work on a new Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

2005 - March

The British Medical Journal publishes new data to show the estimated number of deaths caused by secondhand smoke in the UK. According to Professor Konrad Jamrozik, passive smoking is responsible for an estimated 617 deaths per year in the workplace, including 54 deaths a year among people employed in the hospitality industry. Approximately 10,000 people die each year from passive smoke exposure in the home.

One year after implementation of the Irish smoke free law, a survey shows that 98% of people believe workplaces are healthier as a result. 94% of workplaces inspected were compliant with the law.

Guernsey becomes the first jurisdiction within the United Kingdom to enact comprehensive legislation to ban smoking in public places and workplaces.

1600s

Popes ban smoking in holy places.

1973 - Jun

ASH introduced a "Butt of the Month" award for specific cigarette advertisements with citations for "outstanding services to national ill-health". The first award went to Consulate, a menthol cigarette advertised with the slogan "gives you a taste of the country".

1984 - Nov

Actor Paul Eddington resigns from the Board of the Bristol Old Vic theatre after a deal to accept sponsorship from a tobacco firm is signed.

1991 - Aug

A MINTEL survey shows that 61% of the public supports a ban on tobacco advertising.

1997 - Nov

The 1996 General Household Survey reveals a rise in smoking prevalence among British adults for the first time since the Government began collecting data on smoking in 1972. Among men prevalence rose from the 1994 figure of 28 per cent to 29 per cent, and among women there was an increase from 26 to 28 per cent.

The Government calls for Formula One to be exempt from the proposed EU Directive on tobacco advertising and sponsorship. The proposal is widely criticised and eventually the Government backs down in order not to jeopardise the rest of the Directive.

2004 - January

ASH and the legal firm Thompson's issue a warning letter to leading hospitality industry bosses stating that the ‘date of guilty knowledge’ regarding the dangers of passive smoking is now passed. The letter states that employers have no excuse for not knowing of the risks faced by their staff if they are exposed to secondhand smoke at work.