European News Bulletin EU994 - 22 November 1999

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

EUROPEAN BULLETIN EU9944 – 22 November 1999

Headlines

EUROPE: New Directive on regulation of tobacco products

EUROPE: EU Health Ministers express support for new Directive FINLAND:
Charges for tobacco theft in Turku

ITALY: Smoking and Acute Myocardial Infarction among Women and Men: A
Case-Control Study in Italy SWEDEN: ‘Non Smoking Generation’ campaign
launch


International

WHO: Kobe Declaration calls for a halt to the tobacco menace among women
and children


Full Text


EUROPE: New Directive on regulation of tobacco products


The European Commission has adopted a proposal for a directive on the
manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco products. Its principal
features are as follows:

- A reduction in the maximum tar level of cigarettes from 12mg to 10mg per
cigarette,

- the creation of a ceiling of 1mg nicotine per cigarette

- the creation of a ceiling of 10mg carbon monoxide per cigarette.

- revision of the health warnings on tobacco products.



The proposal is the result of a long consultation process, beginning with
a Commission communication in December 1996 (COM/96/609 fin) and involving
both the Parliament and Council.

"Smoking kills", said Commissioner David Byrne when presenting this
proposal. "It is in my interest to protect people as much as possible from
the negative effects of smoking." He also underlined that the proposed
measures will ensure that the harmful components of tobacco smoke are
subject to a maximum limit across the Community.

Furthermore, the Commission agreed to propose, as part of this directive,
that manufacturers declare the non-tobacco ingredients, including
additives, in their products.

The new proposals will require new stronger "Smoking Kills" warnings
printed in clearer and bigger typeface, and the use of black on a white
background surrounded by a black margin.


In addition, as an effort to limit the misleading description of some
tobacco products, Member States will be asked to authorise and regulate
the use of terms such as "light" "mild" and so on, which have been shown
to mislead consumers into thinking that the products concerned are less
harmful to health. Commissioner Byrne noted that such products have in
fact been linked in recent research to new and more deadly forms of
cancer, particularly in women smokers.

Source: Europa, Tuesday, 16/11/99


EUROPE: EU Health Ministers express support for new Directive

European Union health ministers have expressed support for the Directive
to regulate tobacco. The ministers discussed the proposal but did not take
a vote on it as the plan is expected to be debated for months.

The ministers also agreed that priority should be given to dissuade
youngsters from smoking. "We need to combine strict legislation with
education," said Lars Engqvist, the Swedish social affairs minister.

"It is important that we are not deterred by actions of the tobacco
industry," British minister Gisela Stuart told the gathering. German
Health Minister Andrea Fischer warned "there will be significant economic
interest resistance to this proposal and in the fight against smoking".

Philip Morris said it was "entirely appropriate that authorities should be
examining reasonable measures to ensure that adults who choose to smoke
are fully informed".

Source: Associated Press, Thursday, 11/18/99





FINLAND: Charges for tobacco theft in Turku

The Turku district court has charged six men of tobacco theft.

Approx. 9,300 cartons of cigarettes were stolen from R.J. Reynolds

Finland’s plant in Turku over two years. 6,000 cartons were recovered. The
sentences are likely to be conditional. According to the defence, the
cigarettes were outdated and they would have ended up at refuse dumps. The
tobacco plant had paid tobacco tax of FIM 713,000 (USD 125,000) for the
cigarettes. The six men have admitted to causing a damage worth FIM
389,000 to the plant of which FIM 257,000 has already been paid. The plant
is still claiming for the remaining sum and the tax.

Source: Helsingin Sanomat (XFB)via Gale Group, 10 Nov 1999




ITALY: Smoking and Acute Myocardial Infarction among Women and Men: A
Case-Control Study in Italy

Source: Preventive Medicine, pp. 343-348 Friday, 11/19/99

Abstract

Background. A few studies have compared the smoking-related risk of acute
myocardial infarction (AMI) among women and men from the same population.
A clear assessment of AMI risk among female smokers is now of major public
health importance, given the large number of women who smoke.

Methods. The study is based on two case-control studies, conducted in
Italy between 1983 and 1992, including 429 women and 801 men with AMI, and
863 female and 976 male controls, in hospital for acute conditions,
unrelated to tobacco consumption, other than cardio or cerebrovascular and
neoplastic. Odds ratios (OR) and the corresponding 95% confidence
intervals (CI) were estimated by unconditional multiple logistic
regression, including terms for study center, age, education, and other
major risk factors of cardiovascular disease.

Results. Compared with non-smokers, the OR was 4.1 (95% CI 2.3-5.7) for
female and 3.3 (95% CI 2.4-4.6) for male current smokers. The OR for
smokers of <15 cigarettes per day was 2.4 for women and 2.1 for men; the
sex difference was more evident for smokers of 15 to 24 cigarettes per day
(OR 5.6 for women and 3.2 for men) and of 25 cigarettes per day (OR 9.8
for women and 5.4 for men). The ORs in increasing duration categories were
3.6, 4.2, and 25.0 for women and 3.1, 3.9, and 3.2 for men. There was an
inverse relation between the smoking-related risk of AMI and age among
men, but no clear pattern with age was observed among women.

Conclusions. Our study confirms that the relative risk of AMI is higher
among female than among male smokers, and the difference is greater for
heavy and long-term smokers.




SWEDEN: ‘Non Smoking Generation’ campaign launch


A new campaign by the Non smoking Generation is being launched to persuade
the Government to do more to tackle teenage smoking.


It is estimated that in Sweden, around 70 teenagers take up smoking every
day, amounting to 25,000 new smokers a year.

The Government receives 105 million SEK (8.75 million pounds) a year in
tax revenue from tobacco bought by 15-year-olds is. Meanwhile, the
government grants barely 9 million SEK (750,000 pounds) a year to diminish
the damages caused by the use of tobacco. The real costs for these damages
are estimated to be 9 billion SEK (750 million pounds) a year.


The campaign aims to raise awareness about children, tobacco, tobacco
advertising, and the attitude of the government and to show how the
tobacco industry recruits new customers.

Further information about the campaign can be found at the Non Smoking
Generation website: www.nonsmoking.se



Source: Globalink, 22/11/99



INTERNATIONAL


WHO: Kobe Declaration calls for a halt to the tobacco menace among women
and children

Health experts and anti-tobacco activists have urged the World Health
Organization to fully integrate special needs of women and girls into a
proposed international treaty on tobacco control. The newly concluded Kobe
Declaration was adopted by consensus by some 500 delegates who attended
the four-day international conference on women and tobacco hosted by WHO
in Kobe, Japan from November 14-18.

The Declaration demands that the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
(FCTC) "include gender-specific concerns and perspectives in each and
every aspect" and states that "gender equality in society must be an
integral part of tobacco control strategies and women's leadership is
essential to success".

The Conference examined ways to counter the tobacco epidemic among women
and youth and focused particularly on the alarming rise in smoking among
young women and girls in Asia. For example, a new survey by the Japanese
Ministry of Health and Welfare shows that smoking among women aged 20-29
more than doubled between 1986 and 1999, from 10.5% to 23.2%. Of the 1.1
billion smokers in the world, 200 million are women. That figure is set to
triple in the next 25 years. WHO has estimated that women account for
500,000 of the 4 million tobacco-related deaths that occur every year. If
present smoking trends continue, WHO has warned that by the year 2025, 10
million people per year will die unnecessarily, 70 percent of them in
developing countries.

"The greatest preventive potential for the epidemic in the 21st century
lies in stopping increased smoking rates among the women of Asia and
Africa in particular and among youth," said Dr Derek Yach, Project Manager
of WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative. "Usually in public health, we focus
where disease and death are the highest. In the case of tobacco, we know
there’s a lag of often decades between smoking and death rates. If we can
stop the smoking rates rising, we know with certainty we’ll prevent a
massive epidemic in the 21st century."



WHO/TFI, via Globalink, 18 November 1999




Amanda Sandford Research Manager ASH 102 Clifton Street LONDON EC2A 4HW
tel: 0171 739 5902 fax: 0171 613 0531