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ASH Daily News

15 December 2000

Headlines
'Tobacco reprieve for Formula One'
'San Diego lawsuit over tobacco ads given class action status'
'Big two cancer charities hold merger talks'
Wall Street Journal Europe Comment: 'The European Parliament lashes out at
tobacco firms'
'Association of the California Tobacco Control Program with Declines in
Cigarette Consumption and Mortality from Heart Disease'
'Protecting the Public Health by Strengthening the Food and Drug
Administration's Authority over Tobacco Products'
'Pharmacy demo kit to help smokers quit'
'I don't smoke now'
Baroness Gibson: Banning tobacco advertising is 'common sense'
'Bush win helps BAT'
'TSN hires Coke chief to guide snooker revamp'

Full Text

'Tobacco reprieve for Formula One'

The Times reports that, 'Formula One is to be given a reprieve over the
Government's ban on tobacco sponsorship and advertising, the Department of
Health signalled yesterday. While other sports with tobacco sponsors, such
as cricket and snooker, will have until 2003 to phase out links with the
industry, motor racing will have until October 2006.'
The article adds, 'The Government is having to resort to domestic
legislation to bring in the ban, a manifesto commitment, after the European
Court of Justice ruled that a Brussels initiative had been incorrectly
introduced under the EU's single market legislation rather than as a health
and safety issue.'

Source: The Times and other newspapers, 14 December 2000
Link: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,10-51887,00.html

'San Diego lawsuit over tobacco ads given class action status'

The Associated Press reports that, 'An estimated 1.5 million Californians
who smoked as minors will be eligible to join a lawsuit seeking $682 million
from tobacco companies for allegedly marketing their products to teens, a
judge ruled Wednesday.It is the first case of its kind - attacking tobacco
marketing to teens - to win class action status in the nation, according to
attorneys for the six San Diego Plaintiffs.'

Source: AP News Wire, 13 December 2000

'Big two cancer charities hold merger talks'

The Telegraph reports that, 'The country's two largest cancer charities are
in talks about a merger that would make them the biggest fund-raising
charity in Britain.

The Imperial Cancer Research Fund and the Cancer Research Campaign, which
have
been competing for funds for 70 years, said increased collaboration would
speed
up research to the benefit of patients. A further motive is the rising cost
of
research, driven by scientific and technological advances.

The charities said they might integrate fund-raising activities. They are
the
third and fourth leading fund-raisers in Britain behind Oxfam and the
National
Trust. The ICRF had a total turnover of £115 million last year and the CRC
£100
million. Between them they spent £125 million on research this year and plan
£175 million next year.

Prof Sir Paul Nurse, the director general of the ICRF, said: "There is
nothing
but opportunity here." The mapping of the human genome opened the way to
new,
but expensive, research.'

Source: Daily Telegraph, 12 December 2000


Wall Street Journal Europe Comment: 'The European Parliament lashes out at
tobacco firms'

The Wall Street Journal Europe offers the following editorial comment in
condemnation of the proposed EU Directive on tobacco product regulation,
'There are occasionally good regulations. There are certainly many bad
regulations. The European Parliament's proposal for a new set of rules
governing the sale of tobacco products falls, alas, into the third category.
' The editorial piece goes onto describe the directive 'as doomed to failure
' as is impractical and accuses the EU Parliament of viewing the industry as
'having no rights'.

Letters can be faxed to the editor of Wall Street Journal Europe - 020 7842
9201.

Source: Wall Street Journal Europe, 15 December 2000

'Association of the California Tobacco Control Program with Declines in
Cigarette Consumption and Mortality from Heart Disease'

The following abstract by Caroline M. Fichtenberg, Stanton A. Glantz appears
in the New England Journal of Medicine,
'Background. The California Tobacco Control Program, a large, aggressive
antitobacco program implemented in 1989 and funded by a voter-enacted
cigarette surtax, accelerated the decline in cigarette consumption and in
the prevalence of smoking in California. Since the excess risk of heart
disease falls rapidly after the cessation of smoking, we tested the
hypothesis that this program was associated with lower rates of death from
heart disease.

Methods. Data on per capita cigarette consumption and age-adjusted rates of
death from heart disease in California and the United States from 1980 to
1997 were fitted in multiple regression analyses. The regression analyses
included the rates in the rest of the United States and variables that
allowed for changes in the rates after 1988, when the tobacco-control
program was approved, and after 1992, when the program was cut back.

Results. Between 1989 and 1992, the rates of decline in per capita cigarette
consumption and mortality from heart disease in California, relative to the
rest of the United States, were significantly greater than the pre-1989
rates, by 2.72 packs per year per year (P=0.001) and by 2.93 deaths per year
per 100,000 population per year (P<0.001). These rates of decline were
reduced (by 2.05 packs per year per year [P=0.04], and by 1.71 deaths per
year per 100,000 population per year [P=0.03]) when the program was cut
back, beginning in 1992. Despite these problems, the program was associated
with 33,300 fewer deaths from heart disease between 1989 and 1997 than the
number that would have been expected if the earlier trend in mortality from
heart disease in California relative to the rest of the United States had
continued. The diminished effectiveness of the program after 1992 was
associated with 8300 more deaths than would have been expected had its
initial effectiveness been maintained.

Conclusions. A large and aggressive tobacco-control program is associated
with a reduction in deaths from heart disease in the short run.'

Source: New England Journal of Medicine -- December 14, 2000 -- Vol. 343,
No. 24
Link: http://www.nejm.com/content/2000/0343/0024/1772.asp


'Protecting the Public Health by Strengthening the Food and Drug
Administration's Authority over Tobacco Products'

A analysis piece appears in the New England Journal of Medicine that
discusses the case for better regulation of tobacco in the U.S. The article
adds, 'For years, public health experts hypothesized that cigarettes that
had less tar would also be less hazardous. However, recent studies have
actually shown an increase in the relative risk of all major smoking-related
diseases among smokers, even though most cigarettes now contain far less tar
than those that were on the market 40 years ago. (1) One reason may be that
the tobacco companies designed these newer cigarettes to reduce the tar
levels that are measured by the machine-generated tests sanctioned by the
government without affecting the actual intake of tar by smokers and without
regard to the level of specific harmful substances such as nitrosamine.
Another reason may be related to the additives the tobacco companies use to
enhance the taste of the cigarettes with lower levels of tar. Yet another
may be related to the practices used by the tobacco industry to maintain the
powerful pharmacologic effects of the nicotine in cigarettes even as they
are promoted as "lighter."'

Source: New England Journal of Medicine -- December 14, 2000 -- Vol. 343,
No. 24
Link: http://www.nejm.com/content/2000/0343/0024/1806.asp

'Pharmacy demo kit to help smokers quit'

The Chemist & Druggist magazine reports that, 'Smith Kline Beecham is
introducing a Niquitin CQ NRT patch demonstration kit to help smokers
planning to quit over the New Year.The brand will be supported by a £3.4
million national TV and press advertising campaign from December 22 until
the end.'

Source: Chemist & Druggist, 9 December 2000

'I don't smoke now'

There is further coverage of the ongoing 'No Butts' campaign and this week
it features a nurse who thanks to the campaign says that she has give up
smoking successfully. The campaign is jointly run by the Department of
Health, the Royal College of Nursing and Nursing Times and aims to encourage
nurses who want to stop smoking.

Source: Nursing Times, 7 December 2000

Baroness Gibson: Banning tobacco advertising is 'common sense '

Baroness Gibson writes a piece that assesses her first Queen's Speech as a
member of the House of Lords. She comments on many issues, and on tobacco
advertising writes, 'For a government to be serious about cutting death from
cancer, especially lung cancer, the banning of promotion of tobacco
advertising is also common sense.'

Source: The House Magazine, 15 December 2000

'Bush win helps BAT'

British American Tobacco, the company most exposed to US litigation added 9
¼ p to close at 498p on the news that George Bush had won the US presidency.
The company had previously backed BUSH for presidency because they believe
he will take a softer line towards the tobacco industry.

Source: Financial Times, 15 December

'TSN hires Coke chief to guide snooker revamp'

Marketing reports that, 'The Sportsmasters Network (TSN), the sports
marketing company that last week announced plans to revive world snooker,
has hired senior Coca-Cola marketer Simon Cunningham as marketing director.
Central to the revamp will the end of sponsorship from tobacco firms, which
Cunningham believes has deterred other brands from becoming involved in the
sport.'

Source: Marketing, 14 December 2000
Karl Brookes
Action on Smoking and Health
102 Clifton Street
London
EC2A 4HW
Tel: +44 (0)20 7739 5902
Fax: + 44 (0)20 7613 0531
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