Tobacco industry outguns anti-smoking lobby

Date: 27/06/1996

By Fiona McHugh

THE long-running battle over the European Commission's call for a complete ban on tobacco advertising in the EU demonstrates the difficulties involved in getting agreement among 15 member states with widely-differing approaches towards health issues.

And Health Commissioner Pádraig Flynn's repeated clashes with tobacco giant Philip Morris suggest that the battle between the would-be guardians of citizens' health and the powerful cigarette manufacturers is also set to smoulder on.

If the persistent refusal of health ministers to ban tobacco advertising is anything to go by, the firms would appear to have the upper hand - although not for want of effort on Flynn's part.

The Commissioner has fought long and hard to curb the influence of tobacco companies, launching withering attacks on Philip Morris' advertising campaigns with monotonous regularity. But, with 45 billion ecu - the tobacco industry's worth - at stake, the odds are heavily stacked against him.

Philip Morris' latest advertisements, which play down the dangers of passive smoking, appeared in a number of top European newspapers. While the Commissioner has criticised the campaign, he believes that “responding in kind would not be to our advantage and might be counter-productive”, adding that “no one has been caught out by their claim that a glass of water is more injurious to your health than inhaling other people's smoke”.

Flynn points to research from the US which suggests that the younger people are when they start smoking, the greater the chance of them becoming chronic smokers later in life.

“The battle for market share is waged amongst the young. If you suggest that cigarette advertising has little or no effect on adolescents, then you are either being naïve or disingenuous,” he insists.

Those who support Flynn's call for a ban on all tobacco advertising except at points of sale argue such case-by-case rebuttals would not be necessary if health ministers were to go along with his plan.

So far, however, member states have failed to reach agreement in Council. Twelve times ministers have tried to broker a deal, and 12 times they have failed.

The UK, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Greece remain firmly opposed to the measure.

For Flynn to muster a qualified majority, he would need to convince one large country, such as Germany, and one small country, such as Greece, to switch camps.

Flynn fears that there “is no immediate prospect” of unblocking the directive on tobacco advertising, which, he believes, is vital considering that half a million people die from cancer related to tobacco every year.

But he stresses there is no way he will withdraw or water down the proposal and expresses the hope that the Irish presidency will take up the cudgels again.

Tobacco advertising on television is already banned in the EU under the 1989 Television Without Frontiers Directive. Portugal, Italy, Finland and France outlaw tobacco advertising completely and other governments impose a number of restrictions.

But the Danes and the Germans are opposed to the proposed ban because they think it would restrict the right of citizens to choose whether or not to smoke.

The British and the Dutch, on the other hand, are against it because both have extensive tobacco interests, although the UK insists that it is committed to reducing smoking but believes the high levels of excise duty it imposes on cigarettes are the most effective way of achieving that goal.

The industry, which spent nearly 267 million ecu on tobacco advertising across the Union last year, also argues that a ban would restrict individuals' freedom of choice and claims that tobacco advertisements are not designed to persuade people to take up smoking, but to switch brands.

According to the Commission, however, new smokers tend to remain loyal to their start-up brand for an average of 21 years. It is more likely therefore, the Commission argues, that tobacco companies use advertisements to recruit new smokers as well as to poach addicts from rival companies.

Some 1,500 people die daily in the EU from tobacco-related illnesses. But with smokers in the EU paying an estimated 50 billion ecu in cigarette tax each year, many governments are reluctant to put health considerations before financial ones.

According to a study by the Nederlands Economisch Instituut, a total ban on advertising in the Netherlands could cost the industry 79 million ecu and the country some 650 jobs.