Tobacco Control Resource Centre
&
Centre for Tobacco Control Research

15 November 2000

Open letter to Members of the European Parliament in support of the EU Directive on the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco products

At its plenary session in Strasbourg next month the European Parliament will give its Second Reading Opinion on the above Directive. The Tobacco Control Resource Centre is a partnership of European national medical associations against tobacco. On behalf of almost two million doctors from across the European region, we urge you to make the health of all Europeans your first priority by supporting the Directive. Every day, Europe's doctors come face to face with the suffering and death caused by tobacco. In the EU alone, more than half a million people will die this year as a result of their tobacco use. Across the entire European region, the death toll climbs to some 1.2 million. The measures contained 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 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, as representatives of one million doctors caring for Europeans in non-EU countries, we are convinced there can be no scientific or ethical basis for perpetuating double-standards that deny minimum standards of protection to non-EU citizens.

We are alarmed at the possibility that the tobacco industry has contributed to the rise the international tobacco smuggling, undermining effective public health policies that reduce tobacco consumption through taxation and resulting in the loss of substantial revenues both to the EU budget and to Member State governments. We enclose a copy of a report from the Cancer Research Campaign's Centre for Tobacco Control Research which documents how the UK tobacco industry's own advertising agencies knowingly exploited the black market in smuggled tobacco to launch and establish new tobacco products. As a result of this and other evidence, the Commission has initiated legal action against three tobacco trans-nationals in the US courts.

This shocking report also shows how tobacco companies use packaging and design to convey the misleading impression that certain brands of cigarettes have health benefits, and to allay smokers' legitimate concerns about the damaging effects of smoking.

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 urge you to give priority to the health of all 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

Sir Alexander Macara
Chair, BMA Tobacco Control Resource Centre
Advisory Group

Prof. Gerard Hastings
Director
Cancer Research Campaign Centre for Tobacco Control Research

BMA House, Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9JP, United Kingdom
www.tobacco-control.org
Tel: +44 207 383 6380; Fax: +44 207 383 6233; E-mail: tcrc@bma.org.uk