[Intl-tobacco] PM apologizes over Czech report

[Robert Weissman]

'Smoking is good for state funds'
Tobacco giant apologises over claim after worldwide fury
Source: Irish Independent, Wednesday, 7/18/01

 AN hour before a dangerous operation to remove a cancerous tumour from
his lung, Vaclav Havel famously stood before the TV cameras, smiled, and
lit up a cigarette.  "One more can't hurt me now," he joked.

     Czechs reacted with the same nonchalance yesterday to revelations
that the tobacco company Philip Morris had sent the Czech government a
report suggesting smoking is actually rather a good thing - because
smokers tend to die younger. That saves the Czech Republic more than $100m
in pensions and healthcare a year, according to the report, which has
caused fury among anti-smoking organisations around the world.

     "Philip Morris deeply regrets any impression from this study that the
premature death of smokers represents a benefit to society," the tobacco
company said in a statement.

   Putting the best possible gloss on the health problems that the tobacco
industry has only just admitted, the report claimed that millions is saved
each year because smokers died years before their normal life expectancy.

    The report by Arthur D Little, a consulting firm, said the Czech
government profited by more than $100m in 1999 from smoking, even after
the cost of treating sick smokers was taken into account.

    "Our principal finding is that the negative financial effects of
smoking, such as increased healthcare costs, are more than offset by
positive effects (such as excise tax and VAT collected on tobacco
products)," the report said.

    A significant factor in the "positive" effects of smoking was the
savings derived from not having dead smokers using up public services such
as hospital beds and old people's homes.

  But all was calm at the eye of the storm in the Czech Republic. Many
people in Prague said the revelations would not stop them smoking.

    Mr Havel, whose treatment has cost an estimated =A31m to date, still
suffers frequent health scares brought on by a lifetime of heavy smoking.

    "Citizens' approach to health here is different from the US or the
UK,"  said Dr Martin Jan Stransky, a prominent anti-smoking campaigner.
"Citizens still view their health as the state's concern - and the state
does absolutely nothing to encourage them to protect their health."

    At least 40pc of Czechs smoke. Philip Morris, which took over the old
state monopoly nine years ago, controls around 80pc of the market.

    The government in Prague is considering imposing heavier taxes on
tobacco and banning advertising for cigarettes to bring them into line
with the EU.