EU targets first-time smokers

EU health commissioner David Byrne has sent a warning to the tobacco industry that the EU is hardening its stance on smoking.

The European Commission is stepping up the campaign against smoking by planning new laws to ban cigarette additives which improve the taste of tobacco.

The target is first-time smokers, and a tobacco industry witheringly condemned by Irishman David Byrne as ‘‘the first legal industry to generate disposable consumers’’.

The attack came at a World Health Organisation conference on creating a ‘‘tobacco free Europe’’.

Mr Byrne set out EU moves so far in its assault on smoking - a crackdown on tobacco advertising and new dramatic health warnings on cigarette packets coupled with shocking pictures of the impact of smoking on lungs.

But he said the campaign was still going on. He announced that before 2005 the commission would propose new laws establishing a common list of ingredients authorised for tobacco products.

He went on: ‘‘This will enable scientific advice to be made available on what is in a cigarette and why such additives are present.

‘‘I will be seeking advice, for instance, on whether these additives make the taste of tobacco more palatable to the young first-time smoker. This is important because 80% of those who smoke start before they are 18 years of age.’’

Mr Byrne told the 51-nation conference in Warsaw: ‘‘Of course the tobacco industry knows this too. And as the first legal industry to generate ‘‘disposable consumers’’ it obviously needs to find replacements.

‘‘The industry also knows that tobacco consumption by the young cannot be justified on the basis of consumer choice. However it does justify adult consumption on this basis.

‘‘We all know how real consumer choice is for the addict none more so than the addiction industry.’’

He acknowledged he was unlikely to win any ‘‘popularity votes’’ from the tobacco industry but the EU was now establishing itself as ‘‘a major player in tobacco control at a global level’’.

The Commissioner also signalled a new assault on passive smoking, something he said was considered by some people as an over-reaction.

But the statistics showed that between 30,000 and 50,000 deaths in the EU every year were caused by passive smoking.

He told his audience: ‘‘I am sure you will agree that if these numbers were caused by any other epidemic, we would be sending in the rapid reaction force or banning the culprit products.’’