Call for end to global collusion with tobacco firms

SMOKING kills more people than Aids, murder, drugs, road accidents and suicide combined, but governments and the EU are allowing tobacco companies to influence their policies.

Cancer and anti-smoking organisations say this collusion must end and are demanding strict guidelines in the Convention on Tobacco Control, to prevent tobacco companies interfering in public policy.

More than 157 countries, including Ireland, have signed up to the World Health Organisation’s Convention — the first international public health treaty.

It aims to protect present and future generations from the devastating consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke.

But to succeed, the WHO and a raft of supporting bodies, say the tobacco industry must be banned from influencing governments, and this must be included in the guidelines to be agreed in November.

Irish MEP Avril Doyle, who hosted a seminar on the issue in the European Parliament yesterday, said more than five million people a year die from the effects of tobacco but despite knowing this, the industry is rapidly expanding and targeting young people.

“The global tobacco pandemic can be likened to a bush fire raging out of control. The arsonists claim they want to help put it out. Yet they are still fanning the flames and starting new fires around the world,” she said.

Jean King, director of Tobacco Control at Cancer Research UK, said the convention must be protected from vested interests.

Dr Anna Gilmore of the University of Bath said the tobacco industry had been undermining efforts to control smoking.

“We know in the EU they work in a very coordinated and sophisticated way to lobby at all points of the process. They use covert ways such as using front groups that even its members are not aware of who is behind them.”

Dr Gilmore said the worst examples of the tobacco industry at work are in developing countries and those with weak controls.

In Russia, where young girls are being targeted, they have websites advising how to deal with objections from parents, teachers and boyfriends.

In Uzbekistan, the industry succeeded in getting anti-smoking legislation replaced with a voluntary code. In Nigeria, they purchased vehicles for customs and government officials, said Dr Gilmore.

“Tobacco is not just another industry. We need to ban all face-to-face contact between government officials and politicians and the tobacco industry. If they want to communicate, it should be publicly on the internet”, she added.

* smokefreepartnership.eu

Tobacco claims

* Its products kill half of its users.

* Causes a quarter of all cancer deaths.

* If developed today it would be banned.

* Promoted to young children in developing world.

* Exploits farmers struggling to break even.

* Fights against regulation.

* Tried to undermine the WHO.

* Suppressed research on harmful effects.

* Its prevention campaigns are designed to promote smoking.

* World Bank says it costs the global economy €125 billion a year when all costs and benefits are calculated.