[Intl-tobacco] Tobacco Finds Friends In Germany / Berlin Hurting Anti-smoking Initiatives, Critics Contend (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

Tobacco Finds Friends In Germany / Berlin Hurting Anti-smoking Initiatives, 
Critics Contend
by Ray Moseley / Foreign Correspondent			
Source: Chicago Tribune, Wednesday, 9/6/00

BERLIN --
   While the American tobacco industry is on the defensive, from
fire-breathing members of Congress and costly consumer lawsuits, its
counterpart in Germany is sitting pretty.

   Anti-smoking campaigners contend the German industry enjoys a cozy
relationship with the government and political parties, funding their
party conventions and party newspapers while, in turn, the government
defends tobacco interests in Europe.

   Germany is the only one of the 15 European Union states to challenge a
European Commission proposal to ban all forms of cigarette advertising. It
has taken the issue to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, and a
decision is expected in October.

   Germany is also one of the few states to oppose parts of a European law
to increase the size of health warnings on cigarette packages and to ban
the use of words such as light, mild and low tar on packages. But the law
has passed the European Parliament and will take effect at the end of this
year.

   "Germany is playing a bad role on these questions," said Martin
Koehler, head of the Health Ministry's drugs and addictive substances
department. He said the ministry seeks tighter measures to discourage
smoking but is regularly overruled in the Cabinet.

   The Health Ministry is in negotiation with the tobacco industry,
seeking its financial participation in a campaign to discourage youths
from smoking. "But we are far away from each other," Koehler said.

   Professor Friedrich Wiebel, chairman of the German Medical Action Group
Smoking or Health, said: "There is a cozy relationship between the
industry and government, and the industry is very proud of it. The
American tobacco industry is envious of the condition of the industry
here."

   European statistics show smoking rates in Germany are average for males
and extremely low for females. But Wiebel and other anti-smoking
campaigners said there has been an "alarming" increase in smoking among
the young, and particularly among young women in the former East Germany.

   "The government is not taking any legislative measures to curb the
tobacco epidemic," Wiebel said. "The present Health Ministry favors
action, but it is mainly the Chancellery that blocks it. The government is
relying solely on education and information and voluntary codes for the
industry that are entirely useless. The industry's advertising is clearly
oriented to youth."

   He said government's anti-smoking efforts are of the "fig leaf"
variety, with less than $1 million a year going there compared with more
than $300 million a year spent by the tobacco industry on promotion.

   Ernst Brueckner, general secretary of the Cigarette Industry
Association, denied the industry targets young people with its
advertising. He said the industry has had a voluntary, far-reaching policy
since 1966 of advertising restrictions, such as not using models under 30
or pop stars or sports personalities in ads.

   "We have a long history on record of being against young people
smoking," he said.

   Brueckner acknowledged that the industry openly sponsors political
conventions and other activities but said, "The idea that parties
formulate a cigarette-friendly policy because of that is not realistic."

   German law has long banned tobacco advertising on radio and television
but allows it in movie theaters after 6 p.m., in newspapers and magazines,
and on billboards. Few restaurants ban smoking or have non-smoking
sections. Many government offices restrict smoking, and some businesses do
too.

   Brueckner said the industry believes that the European Commission
overstepped its authority in seeking to ban all cigarette advertising and
said the industry has opposed attempts to deter smoking by making warnings
on packets larger or by suggesting that "smoking kills."

   The association represents six big tobacco companies operating in
Germany--Philip Morris from the U.S. and one company each of German,
Austrian, Luxembourg, Japanese and British origin.

   Wiebel, whose organization is a voluntary group of medical health
professionals, said Philip Morris shifted its research program on the
effects of nicotine and other tobacco ingredients several years ago from
the U.S. to Germany. The aim, he said, was to shield the findings from
American lawyers because German law makes it more difficult to access such
information.

   Several sources said the kind of lawsuits that cigarette consumers have
brought against tobacco companies in the U.S., the latest resulting in a
multibillion-dollar judgment against the companies, are not possible under
German law.

   Officials estimate that 110,000 people in Germany die each year from
smoking. They say smoking accounts for 22 percent of all male deaths and
one-third of deaths among middle-age men. In monetary terms, the cost of
smoking is estimated at $14.5 billion a year, representing health-care
spending and loss of working time.

   Last year the federal government received $10.5 billion from tobacco
taxes, 6 percent of its overall tax income. "Because of the tax revenues,
the government doesn't have an incentive to lower consumption," said
Wolfgang Behrens of the Anti-Smoking Initiative in Berlin.

   His colleague, Johanna Rutenberg, said campaigners would like to see
part of the tax revenue used for prevention campaigns or health care, but
the government has not been receptive to that.