[Intl-tobacco] UK: Tobacco advert ban 'will save 3,000 lives a year'

[Robert Weissman]

Tobacco advert ban 'will save 3,000 lives a year'

by Andrew Sparrow, Political Correspondent
Source: Electronic Telegraph (uk), 2002-08-23, via tobacco.org
URL:
http://money.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/08/23/ntob23.xml&sSheet=/money/2002/08/23/ixcoms.html

Around 3,000 lives a year could be saved by the ban on tobacco
advertising that is due to become law by Christmas, the Government said
yesterday.

Hazel Blears, a health minister, said that the ban could eventually cut
death caused by smoking by 2.5 per cent.

She was publishing a consultation paper giving details of how the
regulations in the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Bill will
affect the industry.

The Government tried to introduce a ban before the general election but
lost its Bill because of shortage of parliamentary time.

The new Bill started life as private member's legislation in the
Lords. The Government has now adopted it as one of its own measures and
it is due to finish all its parliamentary stages when MPs
return after the summer recess.

As the consultation paper explained yesterday, new tobacco
sponsorship deals will be banned and existing ones will only be
allowed to run until July next year.

There will be a temporary exemption for sports like Formula One,
which are deemed "global events". Their existing sponsorship deals will
be allowed to carry on until October 2006, although the value of
sponsorship, and the size of advertisements carried on cars,
will have to decrease by 20 per cent every year.

The Tories claimed that there was a link between these exemptions
and Labour's decision to accept a £1 million donation from Bernie
Ecclestone, the Formula One boss. But Labour, which gave the money back
after being accused of accepting cash for favours, defended
the exemptions on the grounds that the sports affected needed time to
find alternative sponsors.

Miss Blears said yesterday: "Tobacco advertising promotes a deadly habit.
The brands most heavily advertised are those most heavily
smoked by children.

"A ban on tobacco advertising and promotion is an effective measure we
can take to stop young people from starting to smoke and to
reduce the numbers who will ultimately die every year from smoking
related diseases such as cancer and coronary heart disease."

A spokesman for Forest, which fights for rights for smokers,
disagreed with the Government's claim that a ban on advertising
could save up to 3,000 lives a year.

She said: "Advertising has very little impact on why people choose to
smoke. I don't think it comes into it, it only promotes brand
awareness."