Poland to ban all tobacco promotion by 2001 (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Poland to ban all tobacco promotion by 2001
Source: Reuters, Friday, 9/10/99

11:04 a.m. Sep 10, 1999 Eastern

WARSAW, Sept 10 (Reuters) - The Polish parliament on Friday voted to ban
all tobacco advertisements and sponsorship by the end of 2001, severely
tightening laws against cigarettes in this nation of heavy smokers.

Cigarette advertisements in print and on billboards are to be banned by
the end of next year, while all sports sponsorship and promotions by
tobacco companies will be outlawed by the end of 2001. Television
advertisements are already forbidden.

The change, which must still be approved by the parliament's upper house,
will put Poland ahead of the European Union in anti-tobacco legislation.
The EU has voted to ban all tobacco promotion by 2006.

About 25 percent of Poland's 39 million people smoke some 90 billion
cigarettes annually. The health ministry estimates that around 70,000
people die each year from smoking-related illnesses, a figure that
includes about 40 percent of all adult male deaths.

Multinational cigarette companies who flocked to eastern Europe since the
fall of communism a decade ago have found a richer market for their
products than in the more health-conscious West.

``This ban is a very important step in our battle to improve the health of
Poles,'' said Ewa Sikorska-Trela, one of the parliamentary sponsors of the
tighter law.

``Too many Poles have already died of smoking and we finally had to do
something about it,'' she said.

``I am hoping that this ban will have the strongest effect on the young,''
said Tadeusz Parchimowicz from the government's Department of Public
Health.

``Now kids start smoking at the age of 10 and we are also witnessing a sad
trend, young girls starting to smoke much more than boys,'' added
Parchimowicz.

The new law will also forbid the sale of tobacco in schools, health
centres and sporting facilities and increase the fine for smoking in areas
where it is banned.

A national anti-smoking fund will be also set up using money from a 0.5
percent levy on tobacco sales.

``It's sad that a country like Poland which wants to promote democracy and
a free market society is now trying to limit those rights,'' Jan
Wierzbicki, vice-deputy of the Polish National Tobacco Industry, told
Reuters after the vote.

Tobacco industry officials have warned a ban could be counter-productive
because their advertising budgets would go instead to fund price wars,
making cigarettes more accessible to the poor.

  ((Sean Maguire, Warsaw newsroom +48 22 653 9700, fax +48 22 653 9781,
sean.maguire+reuters.com))