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ASH Daily News

Wednesday, 22 December 1999

Headlines

Court rejects challenge against SCOTH report
Canada sues RJR Tobacco over alleged smuggling
Women find it harder to quit, study shows
‘The price of coffins: specious arguments by eminent doctors against
the dangers of tobacco’
‘Deaths in England and Wales, 1998’
‘Customs’ proposals could cost retailers 15p a pack’

Full Text

Court rejects challenge against SCOTH report

A legal challenge by tobacco companies to the content of an
influential government advisory committee report on the health risks
of smoking has been dismissed by a High Court judge.

The ruling comes just days after the Court of Appeal rejected a claim
by the tobacco industry that the government's proposed ban on tobacco
advertising was illegal. That case has now gone to the House of Lords.

Gallaher and Imperial Tobacco had applied for a judicial review of the
report of the Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health (SCOTH).

The companies were unhappy that they were not consulted over the
content of the report, and took issue with some of its findings.

In particular, they were upset by the claim that the tobacco companies
must recruit more than 300 new smokers every day in order to replace
smokers who die from tobacco-related disease. They also claim that the
committee chose to ignore research showing that there is no health
threat posed by passive smoking.

However, the High Court has ruled that because SCOTH is an advisory
committee and does not make policy or exercise executive power, there
was no basis for a judicial review. The judge also dismissed the
tobacco industry argument that it had been harmed by the report, and
said the committee could consult with who it liked.

Public Health Minister Yvette Cooper said: “We are delighted with the
outcome of this judgement.”

Paul Sadler, a spokesman for Imperial Tobacco, said: “We are
disappointed that the judge did not agree that the committee should be
subject to judicial review and did not consider the facts of the case
at all.”

Clive Bates, director of ASH said: "The tobacco industry's strategy of
using the courts at every opportunity to block legitimate tobacco
policy is falling apart around them. Clive added, "We think the
industry should come out and apologise for its crude attack on this
committee of eminent scientists and for wasting everyone's time."

Source: Reuters, BBC News Online 21 December 1999; Daily Mail, 22
December 1999
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_573000/573709.stm

Canada sues RJR Tobacco over alleged smuggling

The Wall Street Journal Europe reports that the Canadian government
has filed a lawsuit against RJ Reynolds Tobacco, alleging, ' a vast
conspiracy to smuggle cigarettes into Canada and thwart Canadian
health policy'.

Source: Wall Street Journal Europe, Financial Times, International
Herald Tribune, 22 December 1999
Link: http://www.legalnewsnet.com/news/news_story.asp?story_id=2200

Women find it harder to quit, study shows

They claim this may be due to the fact that women take smaller,
shorter puffs when smoking and get greater withdrawal relief from
cigarettes.

A study led by Thomas Eissenberg, of Virginia Commonwealth University,
at Richmond in the US, tested the reaction of 38 men and 30 women to
giving up smoking. They were asked to rate their desire to smoke,
their cravings for a cigarette and their withdrawal symptoms, such as
restlessness and difficulty concentrating. The volunteers smoked
through a machine that measured the size, number, duration and time
between puffs. Their heart rate, blood pressure and skin temperature
were also measured.

After each cigarette, women experienced significantly greater
decreases in their desire to smoke compared to the men. And their
withdrawal symptoms were more greatly reduced. But there was little
difference in the physiological factors such as heart rate.

"One reason that women may have more difficulty quitting smoking than
men may be that current treatments have not emphasised the importance
of the withdrawal relief that a cigarette provides the smoker," said
Dr Eissenberg. He adds: "The fact that women take smaller and shorter
puffs than men may also mean that women take in less nicotine and are
therefore less dependent on it. If women are less dependent on
nicotine, effective treatment for women smokers may need to focus on
factors in addition to nicotine addiction."

But the researchers claimed that more research into the factors which
cause withdrawal relief for smokers, and in particular women, were
needed.

Source: BBC News online, 20 December 1999
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_569000/569274.stm

Deaths in England and Wales, 1998

There were 555,015 deaths in England and Wales in 1998, just 266 fewer
than in 1997. The main causes of death were: cancer (25 percent),
coronary heart disease (22 percent), respiratory disease (16 percent)
and cerebrovascular disease, including stroke (10 percent).

Source: Office for National Statistics, Press Release 21 December 1999

‘The price of coffins: specious arguments by eminent doctors against
the dangers of tobacco’

P. Cowen, writing in The BMJ, produces an excellent review of the
early response to the Doll and Hill report of 1957 into the link
between lung cancer and smoking. He highlights that from the start
there was a resistance to the findings, in which some doctors played a
part.

Cohen writes, ‘Having smoked over 20 cigarettes a day for 11 years I
was alarmed by this information and decided to stop immediately; I
have not smoked since. Shortly after quitting I began to take an
interest in the response to the white paper and was surprised by what
I found. In general, newspaper articles reflected resistance to the
findings for example, the chairman of the Tobacco Workers Trade Union
was reported in the tabloid press about 1960 as saying that cigarettes
alone could not be blamed for lung cancer as no one knew what they had
been lying next to in the shop.’

Source: BMJ, Volume 319 18 –25 December 1999, p. 1621-23
Link: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/319/7225/1621

‘Customs’ proposals could cost retailers 15p a pack’

Retailers would bear the brunt of the extra costs of handling tobacco
products that have passed their sell-before date. The Federation of
Wholesale Distributors allege that the Government plans to introduce
‘duty paid’ tax stamps, could cost the retailer as much as 15p a pack.

Source: Independent Retail News, 17 December 1999

Karl Brookes
Project Manager
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