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ASH Daily News
29 November 2001

Headlines

Anti-tobacco activists welcome US report
Maryland smokers breathe easier
Heavy smoking clouds EU membership
Gently does it

Full Text

Anti-tobacco activists welcome US report

Activists lobbying at the 3rd inter-governmental negotiations of the Framewrok Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC) welcomed a report released today by the US National Cancer Institute that said cigarettes marketed as "light" or "low-tar" were deceiving the public.

They demanded that a global treaty on tobacco control, currently under negotiation in Geneva, include a sweeping ban on what they called misleading labelling.

London-based ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) said the label "light" was one of "the most deadly consumer confidence tricks of all time".

The US report found that although the design of cigarettes had changed over the past 50 years as companies created products advertised as packing less cancer-causing tar, there had been no meaningful change in the health risk.

"Marlboro Lights may soon be a thing of the past -- at least they won't be able to call them 'light'," Clive Bates, director of ASH said.

"So-called light cigarettes represent one of the most deadly consumer confidence tricks of all times," he added. "There must be thousands of smokers who were fooled into thinking light cigarettes were a reason not to quit."

The European Union, Brazil, Canada and some other countries have banned terms such as "low tar", "light", "ultra light" and "mild", but face legal challenges from the tobacco industry.

Judith Wilkenfeld of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, of Washington DC, said: "This report provides powerful scientific evidence for the world's nations, collectively and individually, to protect their citizens by prohibiting the tobacco industry from continuing to make deceptive health claims about their products."

She called for the Framework Convention, due by 2003, to include a ban on such terms as "light" and on trademarks suggesting a particular tobacco product was less harmful than others.

The current round of negotiations on the tobacco control treaty, being held under the auspices of the World Health Organisation (WHO), ends on Wednesday.

The lobby groups also want an outright ban on tobacco advertising and tighter controls on smuggling included in the treaty.

Source: Reuters, 29 November 2001


Maryland smokers breathe easier

It was reported last week that Montgomery County, Maryland was seeking to introduce a revision of it’s indoor air quality standards, which regulates potentially harmful pollutants such as asbestos, radon, moulds or pesticides, to include tobacco smoke. The new standards would have given people suffering the nuisance of neighbours’ smoke an avenue to lodge a complaint to their environmental agency.

Smokers and landlords or condominium associations that failed to ventilate buildings properly would have faced fines of up to $750 per violation if they failed to mitigate the problem.

Now, however, the county has backed down on the proposed changes, and it’s chief administrator Douglas Duncan, has vetoed the measure. Mr Duncan last week unequivocally promised to support the measure but on Tuesday said that he changed his mind after realising that the anti-smoking measure “went too far”.

The turn around in the County’s policy comes after adverse publicity in the media which presented the indoor air quality standards measure as anti-smoking legislation that would ban people smoking in their own homes.

Blair Ewing, the council president acknowledged that the measure was received badly, politically at least, and expressed disappointment. He added that the erosion of political support had effectively killed the legislation.

International Herald Tribune, 29 November 2001


Heavy smoking clouds EU membership

Recently, an EU proposal to increase minimum levels of tax on cigarettes among member countries was defeated, thought to be as a result of tobacco industry lobbying. The proposal had aimed to decrease the incentive for smuggling from low tax countries to the higher ones by attempting to harmonise tax regimes on tobacco.

Now, several accession countries including the Czech Republic, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania had expressed reservations over the failed EU proposals. They claim that the proposals would have made smoking a more expensive habit, saying that such a change could erode support for membership among their citizens, most of whom are heavy smokers.

Source: International Herald Tribune, 29 November 2001


Gently does it

Smokers puffing on the underground in Vienna will be handed lollipops over the next three months to remind them that a £10 fine is to be introduced.

Source, The Sun, 29 November 2001




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