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ASH Daily News
28 October 2002

HEADLINES

Scientists stub out hopes for a safer cigarette
Fury at £80m EU handout to tobacco farmers
BAT’s acquisition strategy
Belgian Grand Prix facing tobacco axe
Many happy returns: Sir Richard Doll 90 today
PoS adban opposed
Parliamentary debate


FULL TEXT


Scientists stub out hopes for a safer cigarette

The Observer reports the death knell on the spurious idea of a safer
cigarette.

According to recent claims by manufacturers, a cigarette that contains a
fraction of the usual number of lethal toxins could be on the shelves of
British newsagents by the end of next year.

But the search for the smoker's holy grail has been ridiculed by one of the
giants of the tobacco industry. According to BAT, the safe cigarette is a
myth and any company that claims to have produced one is seriously and
dangerously confused.

'There's no such thing as a safe cigarette,' said Dr Chris Proctor, head of
science and research at BAT. 'I'm pretty sure we will see products coming
along in the next year, some of them from us, that are trying to make these
first small steps towards less risk but we're still talking about something
that is going to be very dangerous.

'As a tobacco company, we need to be seen to be putting in as much effort as
we can to try to reduce the risks but these first-generation cigarettes are
the smallest of steps along the way.

'There's a possibility we can reduce the risks a very little bit but even if
we do produce a cigarette that contains fewer toxins and tastes the same,
there is still no guarantee we will know whether it has any potential for
reducing the harm suffered by the smoker.'

According to Proctor, there are simply no laboratory tests sophisticated
enough to gauge whether a particular cigarette is less risky over a 30-year
time frame for human beings than any other brand.

Proctor's admission has, however, been greeted with scepticism by
anti-smoking campaigners including Professor Martin Jarvis of University
College London, who is a principal scientist at Cancer Research UK.

'When an ordinary cigarette is lit, the 300 or so toxic and carcinogenic
substances in tobacco explode into a cocktail of more than 5,000, including
60 cancer-forming agents,' he said. 'There is no way that a cigarette can,
therefore, ever be safe.

Source: The Observer, 27 October 2002



Fury at £80m EU handout to tobacco farmers

The Express on Sunday reports that BRITISH taxpayers are shelling out nearly
£80million a year to subsidise tobacco growers -a move denounced last night
as crazy and immoral. Anti-smoking campaigners and opposition spokesmen
called for an end to the EU payments to farmers in southern Europe.

They spoke out after Parliament finally banned tobacco advertising, branding
it an "extraordinary stupidity" that Brussels is still helping to boost the
industry. The full extent of how Britain is forced to line the pockets of
tobacco farmers in Greece, Italy, France and Spain slipped out in a
parliamentary answer over the summer while MPs were on holiday. Environment
Minister Lord Whitty admitted Britain's contribution to the £610million
tobacco subsidy was 12.7 per cent- or £77.5million. He admitted that 2,751
tons of tobacco were sold to the Third World.

According to the World Health Organisation, tobacco-related diseases kill
four million people every year and are set to cause 10million deaths
annually, mostly in developing countries, by 2030.

Clive Bates, director of Action on Smoking and Health, said: "It's
outrageous. It takes the extra- ordinary stupidity of the CAP and distills
it into pure idiocy. There's no justification for it, it's just a sordid
policy. The money is more than twice what we spend on public health. We
would be better off putting £80million into anti-smoking programmes."

Source: Express on Sunday, 27 October 2002



BAT’s acquisition strategy


When BAT posts third quarter figures tomorrow the management can expect
burning questions from both the investment community and journalists
regarding their acquisition strategy, according to the Independent. Earlier
this month the stock market seemed convinced that BAT was about to launch a
bid for Gallaher, sending shares of its smaller rival soaring.

Although BAT could easily swallow Gallaher, not everyone in the city
believes it would really want to. Many reckon such a deal would face
extensive regulatory scrutiny given the influence the combined group would
have in the UK market.

JP Morgan reckons BAT is most likely to make acquisitions in the US or
Continental Europe.

Source: The Independent, 28 October 2002


Belgian Grand Prix facing tobacco axe

Next year’s Belgian Grand Prix is set to be removed from the Formula One
calendar as a result of a row over restrictions on tobacco advertising.

Team heads had decided at a meeting on Thursday not to go to Spa
Francorchamps next year after the Belgian government tobacco sponsorship
would be banned in August 2003 before the Grand Prix.

Team officials were holding further discussions with FIA officials before a
meeting of the Formula One commission on Monday. A FIA spokesman could not
confirm any decision on Spa saying that it was up to the commission to
decide.

Source: The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, 26 October 2002



Many happy returns: Sir Richard Doll 90 today

Were it not for several pints of ale consumed the night before his entrance
exam to study mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge, Professor Sir
Richard Doll, president of Action on Smoking and Health, might never have
entered the medical profession. He didn’t gain the expected scholarship, and
went instead to St Thomas’s Hospital, London, where he became an
epidemiologist. In 1950 he and Austin Bradford-Hill published the first data
linking smoking to lung cancer. The difficulties he faced in getting the
government to take the issue seriously were highlighted in 1957 when the
Minister of Health chaired a televised press conference on the connection
between tobacco and cancer while himself smoking a cigarette. The former
Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, Sir Richard still works
every day at Oxford’s cancer studies unit, his only concession to age being
a 10am start. He is 90 today.

Source: The Times, 28 October 2002



PoS adban opposed

The Tobacco Alliance has urged retailers to oppose the banning of tobacco
advertising at point of sale. The call follows publication of the department
of health’s daft regulations on tobacco advertising, which propose some
restrictions.

Source: Retail Week, 25 October 2002



Parliamentary debate

Mr David Laws debates Customs and Excise policies in relation to cross
Channel purchases of tobacco and alcohol in Westminster Hall on Wednesday
1.30 p.m. - 2.00 p.m.



Naj Dehlavi
Action on Smoking and Health
102 Clifton Street
London EC2A 4HW
http://www.ash.org.uk



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