Tobacco industry 'at odds' with public health

Irish deputy Avril Doyle has voiced concern about tobacco companies increasingly “peddling their trade” outside EU member states.

Speaking at a news conference in parliament on Tuesday, she also called for “complete transparency” by public figures, including MEPs, on any “donations” they receive from the tobacco industry

She said the industry was a “potent enemy” for those who seek to support a smoke-free environment and should be excluded from influencing public health policies.

“Increasingly, we are seeing those involved in the industry move from the west to what might be called weaker democracies, in trying to compensate for falling tobacco sales in places like EU countries,” she said.

“Despite this, the message we should be sending to the industry is that the days of peddling their trade are over.”

Doyle was speaking ahead of a one-day seminar in parliament on Tuesday.

She and other speakers called for full implementation of the framework convention on tobacco control treaty, the world’s first international public health treaty.

Another keynote speaker, Jean King of Cancer Research UK, said, “The tobacco industry makes a product that causes more than a quarter of cancer deaths, all of them entirely preventable.

“It has a track record of seeking to mislead the public and policymakers, for example, by concerted efforts to distort established scientific findings and processes. It cannot be treated as just any other industry.”

EU health commissioner Androulla Vassiliou commented, “We have to protect public health policies from commercial and vested interests, regardless of the actions of the tobacco industry. Strong and transparent institutions and processes are essential for that purpose.”

In a statement, former EU health commissioner David Byrne also called for an “effective” implementation of the treaty.

“While in office, I refused to meet the tobacco industry because any such meetings tend to legitimise the activities of this industry, which manufactures and sells the only consumer product that kills half of its consumers.”

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