[Intl-tobacco] German Government Publishes List of Tobacco-Product Additive

[robert weissman]

German Government Publishes List of Tobacco-Product Additives -
Bloomberg News

May 17, 2005

May 17 (Bloomberg) -- Germany became the first European Union country to
publish a list of all additives in tobacco products, meeting the
requirements of an EU directive.

``It is a basic right of the consumer to know what is in the products,'
Consumer Protection and Agriculture Minister Renate Kuenast said today
at a press conference in Berlin.

Kuenast's ministry today published a list running to more than 1,000
pages of all additives in cigarettes, cigars, rolling and pipe tobacco,
including menthol, rum or honey, on its Web site. The list, based on the
tobacco producer's information, also includes the percentage of
nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide each product contains.

The German government has been taking measures to reduce smoking, which
it says leads to around 100,000 deaths a year. Tobacco-products sales in
Germany in 2002 totaled 23 billion euros ($29 billion), about a quarter
of the value for the entire EU, according to the Confederation of
European Community Cigarette Manufacturers.

Under the EU directive, member states are required to publish all the
ingredients of tobacco products once a year.

German researchers will now put together a list of any additives that
release toxic materials when burned and that contribute to addiction by
overshadowing the taste of tobacco, Kuenast said. Europe-wide tests
might then lead to some tobacco additives being banned, she said.

In other efforts to cut smoking, the government and the country's Hotel
and Catering Association on March 2 agreed to expand the space set aside
for non-smokers in almost all restaurants and cafes.

We are aiming at ``more smoke-free zones, better prevention and a
reduction of positive advertising of health-damaging products,' Kuenast
said.

The government raised tobacco tax by 1.2 euro cents a cigarette in March
and December last year, and a third increase by the same amount is due
to take effect Sept. 1.

That last increase may not go ahead as planned, because the previous
rises failed to bring in the expected extra revenue as smokers turn to
contraband cigarettes, gave up smoking or switch to rolling tobacco,
Deputy Finance Minister Karl Diller said on April 15.

To contact the reporters on this story:

Claudia Rach in Berlin at crach1@bloomberg.net

http://www.bloomberg.com/[...]milLI8&refer=3Dgermany

BMVEL press release & tobacco ingredient links:

K=FCnast: Wissen was drin ist gilt auch f=FCr Tabak!
http://www.bml.de/[...]10E6521C0A8D816.html
Listen der Zusatzstoffe in Tabakprodukten 2004
http://www.bml.de/[...]4626521C0A8D816.html