News

Government remains addicted to tobacco despite medical advice to quit

Pressure on the government to take tougher action on tobacco has increased significantly over recent weeks. Despite having proposed a challenging Health of the Nation target to reduce cigarette consumption by at least 40% by the year 2000, the government has so far set its face resolutely against a tobacco advertising ban, preferring instead to stick to a voluntary agreement with the industry.

But in January the House of Commons health committee called on the government to change its mind and support a ban. It pointed to evidence that such a measure in other countries had proved effective in reducing cigarette consumption, and argued that targets on smoking reduction were unlikely to be achieved without a strong central lead.

Marion Roe, Conservative MP for Broxbourne and chair of the committee, said that apart from price, advertising was one factor which the government could directly control.

One week after the health committee’s embarrassing report, Veronica Bland, an employee of Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, won £15,000 from her employers in an out-of-court settlement. She claimed that exposure to cigarette smoke over the period between 1979 and 1990 had caused persistent coughs, sore throats, catarrh and eye irritation.

Ms Bland said: ‘I’m very pleased with the outcome and I hope it will provide the impetus for other employees to press for no-smoking policies.’

In the wake of the settlement, ASH announced that it was considering bringing cases against a further 20 employers who failed to provide separate facilities for smokers and non-smokers.

The day after Ms Bland’s victory, a 48-year-old man from Beith in Strathclyde began legal action against Imperial Tobacco. Alfred McTear, who smoked 60 cigarettes a day until last June, is claiming £500,000 in damages from the tobacco company for failing to put warnings on its cigarette packets in the 1960s.

Meanwhile, the Health Education Authority published the results of a new opinion poll showing strong public support for further government action on tobacco. Seventy-five percent of those asked supported a total ban on advertising tobacco products, with 64 percent of smokers supporting such a ban.

In mid-February, new results were published from the survey of smoking among British doctors, which began in 1951. They showed that one in two long-term smokers will die prematurely.

EC health ministers are due to meet again in May to consider an advertising ban, with Britain and Germany remaining opposed to the measure.