Letter to UK MEPs in support of the EU Directive on the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco products

15 November 2000

At its plenary session in Strasbourg next month the European Parliament will give its Second Reading Opinion on the above Directive.

As the representative of Britain's doctors, we urge you to make the health of UK and European citizens your first priority and to oppose amendments being promoted by the tobacco industry.

In the UK alone, 120 000 people will die this year as a result of their tobacco use. Across the EU in 1990, the death toll reached half a million. The measures in this Directive will help reduce this terrible toll, by:

• Reducing the tar content of cigarettes and introducing limits on carbon monoxide and nicotine
• Requiring full disclosure of data on the nature and properties of tobacco additives
• Ending misleading tobacco labelling that implies health benefits
• Introducing effective and informative health warnings on tobacco products

The UK tobacco industry has argued that products manufactured within the EU for export to other countries should be exempt from the provisions of the Directive. We strongly oppose any such exemption, which will undermine the effectiveness of the Directive. Products manufactured for export often find their way back onto the EU market through smuggling. Moreover, there can be no scientific or ethical basis for perpetuating double-standards that deny minimum standards of protection to consumers in the accession states and elsewhere.

We note with alarm recent allegations that the tobacco industry has itself contributed to the rise in international tobacco racketeering. Racketeering undermines effective public health policies that reduce tobacco consumption through taxation, and results in substantial loss of revenues to both national governments and the EU.

We enclose a copy of a recent report from the Cancer Research Campaign and the BMA's Tobacco Control Resource Centre which documents how the UK tobacco industry's own advertising agencies knowingly exploited the black market in smuggled tobacco to establish new tobacco products on the UK market. As a result of this and other evidence submitted to the UK Health Select Committee, the Department of Trade and Industry is now conducting an inquiry into allegations that BAT colluded in tobacco smuggling.

The Directive presents an important opportunity for members of the European Parliament to protect consumers from a product that is uniquely hazardous to health. We believe that effective regulation means resisting undue industry influence, and placing lives above livelihoods. We urge you to give priority to the health of British and Europe's citizens by voting for a robust Directive on the manufacture, sale and presentation of tobacco products, and by ensuring that the Directive applies to all tobacco products manufactured and sold in the EU.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Ian G. Bogle
Chairman of Council
British Medical Association