[Intl-tobacco] EU Panel OKs Tobacco Controls (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

EU Panel OKs Tobacco Controls
by Paul Ames / Associated Press Writer
Source: AP, Tuesday, 5/15/01

BRUSSELS, Belgium =96=96 The European Parliament voted Tuesday to adopt
stringent new legislation on tobacco marketing that could see cigarette
packets covered with graphic photographs illustrating the health
consequences of smoking.

Under the rules approved by the 626-seat European Union assembly in
Strasbourg, France, all cigarette packets sold in the EU after September
next year will have health warnings covering at least 30 percent of the
front and 40 percent of the back.

Current EU rules state such warnings must cover 4 percent of packets.

By the end of 2002, the 15 EU governments will be given the option of
requiring the addition of photographs showing stained teeth, diseased
lungs and other smoking-induced health effects.

Other measures in the new regulations will force tobacco companies to cut
the level of tar and nicotine in cigarettes, list all ingredients of
cigarettes and ban the use of terms such as "mild" and "low tar" from
cigarette labels.

The parliamentary vote was the final hurdle for the package, which was
first proposed in January 2000. Legislators approved the bill by a large
majority in a show-of-hands vote.

"This legislation will transform the way cigarettes are sold ... and alter
the public perception of smoking forever," said Catherine Stihler, a
British socialist member of the assembly.

"The days of glamorous cigarette packs with obscure health warnings are
over."

The tobacco industry has reacted with dismay to the new rules.

John Carlisle, of Britain's Tobacco Manufacture's Association, said the
ban on the manufacture of cigarettes with more than 10 milligrams of tar
will have a devastating impact on European exports to Asia, Australia and
Africa, where consumers want stronger cigarettes. The current maximum on
cigarettes sold in the EU is 12 milligrams of tar.

He said 8,000 jobs in the EU will be at risk.

Carlisle also dismissed the proposed use photographs in health warnings.

"We think this is just a gimmick," he said. "This kind of graphic
description should not have a role in a sophisticated society. It's a
rather tasteless, worthless exercise."

The rules will oblige manufacturers to cut the tar, nicotine and carbon
monoxide levels in cigarettes made for export from the EU to the same
levels of those marketed in the EU after a transition period up to 2007.

The labeling regulations mean health warnings on packs will state "Smoking
kills" or "Smoking seriously harms you and others around you" on the
front, while cautions on the back will alert consumers to more specific
risks such as lung cancer.

The vote was warmly welcomed by the EU's top public health official.

"The EU is firmly committed to reduce the death toll from smoking and I am
convinced that today's legislation will help to achieve this objective,"
said EU Health Commissioner David Byrne.

"These are badly needed state-of-the-art rules based on solid science."

Other EU tobacco restrictions are in the pipeline =96 including a proposed
minimum tax on cigarettes and a new attempt to severely restrict tobacco
advertising =96 which Byrne says will help achieve his aim of reducing the
number of smokers from a one-in-three to one-in-five of the EU population.

A previous ban on advertising tobacco products on billboards, in movie
theaters and items such parasols, and ashtrays in restaurants was
overturned last October by the EU's supreme court after an appeal by
tobacco and advertising companies backed by the German government.