ASH Daily News for 13 October 2008

Blair intervened over F1 tobacco ban exemption, documents show

Tony Blair personally intervened to secure an exemption for Formula One from a tobacco advertising ban just hours after meeting the sport's boss, Bernie Ecclestone, according to Whitehall documents.

Previously secret papers, show that the former prime minister personally intervened in pushing for the exemption hours after meeting the Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone.

The incident, in the first few months of Blair's premiership, became known as New Labour's first sleaze scandal.

The government has always maintained that Blair's meeting did not influence the final decision over the exemption, even though Ecclestone was a major donor to the Labour party.

At the time, Blair denied any personal involvement in the issue, appearing on the BBC's On the Record programme to insist he was a "pretty straight kind of guy".

But briefing notes prepared by officials - obtained under freedom of information laws - raise questions about his account.

They reportedly show that he instructed his chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, to signal his support for an exemption after meeting Ecclestone on October 16 1997.

The following day, Downing Street wrote to Tessa Jowell, then the public health minister, stating: "The prime minister would like your ministers to look for ways of finding a permanent derogation for sport, in particular F1."

On October 24, Jowell wrote to Blair setting out possible options including an exemption as well as a suggestion for a longer phasing-in period for the ban.

However, five days later, she received a letter insisting: "His (the prime minister's) view remains that we should seek to negotiate a permanent exemption for Formula One, backed up by a voluntary agreement with the FIA."

Jowell then wrote to the EU - where the tobacco advertising legislation was being drafted - seeking a total exemption for formula one.

The documents also reveal concern among Whitehall officials that they were at risk of being "disingenuous" about the situation.

John Maples, the Conservative MP for Stratford-on-Avon, had tabled a parliamentary question asking on which date Blair had informed the health secretary, Frank Dobson, of the decision to push for an exemption.

A reply, which gave the date as October 29, was drafted, but a briefing note warned: "The draft reply is strictly true in terms of the final decision which resulted in the letter to EU colleagues and is consistent with the prime minister's references on On the Record to the decision having been taken two or three weeks after the meeting (with) the FIA on 16 October.

"However, if the correspondence were in the public domain, critics could argue that the answer was disingenuous in that the prime minister's views had been clearly conveyed by the telephone call on October 16 and the letter on October 17."

Before the question had been answered, Blair told the Commons that the decision to exempt Formula One had been made on November 5.

When the answer to Maples' question was finally given, it referred him to Blair's statement.

Chris Grayling, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said: "These revelations blow the lid off what looks to have been a culture of deceit in Downing Street under Tony Blair.

"Mr Blair assured us at the time that there was no deception and if, as is now thought, this claim was untrue, Mr Blair has some serious questions to answer."

A spokesman for Blair yesterday said: "There is nothing new here. All these issues were debated at the time."

Source: The Guardian, 12 October 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/48r2az

Health bosses want total tobacco adverts ban

Health bosses in Bolton are calling on the Government to ban all [residual forms of] tobacco advertising and force shopkeepers to “hide” cigarettes behind the counter. 

NHS Bolton, which is the new name for Bolton’s Primary Care Trust, has signed up to the Beyond Smoking Kills report that has been launched by Action on Smoking and Health.

The report, which has been compiled by a team of medical and scientific experts, is calling on the Government to enforce a raft of radical new measures to encourage people to give up smoking.

These include plain packaging for all tobacco products, banning the display of tobacco products in shops, clamping down on tobacco smuggling and giving smokers access to non-tobacco alternatives, such as nicotine replacement therapy.

Jan Hutchinson, director of public health for NHS Bolton, said: “We’ve seen significant and welcome reductions over recent years in the number of Bolton people who smoke, but smoking still causes far more preventable deaths in Bolton than anything else."

“That’s why we have joined the campaign for a proper national plan to reduce the harm from tobacco and we are pleased to endorse this important report.”

The number of people smoking in Bolton has fallen from 29.6 per cent in 2001 to 23 per cent last year, with six per cent of adults smoking more than 20 cigarettes a day. In some parts of the borough, such as the Hall Wood estate, as many as 65 per cent of people smoke.

More than 100 health and welfare organisations have signed up to support the report nationally, which has been presented to health minister, Dawn Primarolo.

New figures released earlier this week revealed the annual cost to the NHS of treating smoking-related illnesses has risen from £1.7 billion in 1998 to £2.7 billion now.

Source: The Bolton News, 10 October 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/3h2cy2

Australia: Health groups welcome smoking fight

Health groups have supported a federal government task force call to make Australia the healthiest country by 2020 through large cuts in smoking, drinking and obesity rates.

The Preventative Health Taskforce yesterday called for a 9 per cent cut in daily smoking, a 30 per cent cut in harmful drinking and a reversal of obesity rates.

It wants to see this through fundamental changes in advertising and widespread education campaigns.

The Heart Foundation's Maurice Swanson agrees that these strategies will work.

Australian Medical Association president Dr Rosanna Capolingua says only 2 per cent of the total health budget is focused on prevention and there needs to be new funding.

"If you're looking at nationwide campaigns around obesity, if you're looking at legislation around controlling junk food advertising, proper labelling of food - it's not there," she said.

"It wasn't there with the previous government and this government hasn't increased the funding.

Source: ABC News, 11 October 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/4z7ra3

South Africa: Anti-smoking group fumes over tobacco SMS

In a move that anti-smoking lobbyists say is in direct violation of South Africa's tough anti-smoking laws, Dunhill - a product of BAT South Africa - has sent out mass text messages to people promoting its new "limited-edition range".

Companies that contravene the law face a fine of up to R1-million.

"I think the text message is indicative of the desperate need of the tobacco companies to addict young people, and they will break the law to continue to profit from selling an addictive drug," said Dr Yussuf Saloojee, executive director of the National Council Against Smoking.

However in a statement, Itumeleng Langeni, a spokesperson for BAT, said their marketing strategy was above board. "We are not aware of any complaints against us regarding the company's marketing practices, and therefore we cannot comment on it."

"However, we do believe we are operating completely within the ambit of the current tobacco law," she said.

Over the years, tobacco companies have come up with novel ways to bypass South Africa's stringent anti-smoking regulations.

Parties were thrown at secret locations where free cigarettes were distributed in an effort to market cigarette makers' products to partygoers who form part of the "in crowd", and therefore are perfect ambassadors for the next generation of potential smokers.

The tobacco companies used grey areas of the 1999 Tobacco Control Amendment Act for this "viral marketing campaign", but these loopholes have been closed by a further amendment tabled in parliament earlier in 2008.

Saloojee said it had now become clear that tobacco companies were no longer looking to exploit loopholes, but were blatantly breaking the law.

He said the text messages advertised the cigarette brand and was therefore illegal.

Saloojee said the tobacco companies might be using this advertising strategy because they believed people would not report them.

"But we will lay a charge with the police. This is the first I heard of it, and if more people come forward with this complaint, we will definitely go to the police," he said.

Saloojee urged people who had received the text message to contact the National Council Against Smoking on 011-720-3145 so that they could build a substantial case before going to the police.

Source: IOL, 13 October 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/4pl6dw