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REACTION TO HEALTH SELECT COMMITTEE REPORT 

"If the Health Select Committee's report helps to restore the dialogue and co-operation that previously existed between the TMA's member companies and successive Governments, it will have served some purpose.

"The report makes many sweeping recommendations, which we - and the Government - will have to consider closely before expressing a view. There will undoubtedly be areas of disagreement but our member companies remain committed to co-operating on genuine issues of concern.

"The tobacco companies are engaged in a legal business and, whether their critics like it or not, the only sure way of delivering practical and workable policies in the future, and for the Government to achieve its objectives, is to talk constructively to the TMA and its members.

"The TMA looks forward to sitting down with Health Ministers as soon as possible to discuss the way forward."

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UK GOVERNMENT: Government praises Select Committee Report as exposing industry evasion on tobacco; Ministers welcome call for tougher action against tobacco companies 

Yvette Cooper, the Minister for Public Health today welcomed the Commons Select Committee Report on Tobacco.

She said, "I welcome this report. It shows clearly as we have said that when it comes to the tobacco industry voluntary agreements just don't work. That is why we are legislating to ban tobacco advertising and achieve tighter regulation at the European level."

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APPENDIX 41: Letter from the Corporate Affairs Director Imperial Tobacco Group Plc, to the Clerk of the Committee (TB 13F) 

However, given the huge volume of material concerned, we do not understand how having copies of these documents will assist the Committee in the preparation of its report. We believe it would take many man-years to read our documents alone. Based upon comments made by members of the Committee during the enquiry, we are concerned that the Committee intends simply to make our documents publicly available.

In the circumstances, please would the Committee explain what its intentions are and how the supply of our documents would assist the Committee. 25 February 2000

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APPENDIX 16: Memorandum by Professor Sir Richard Peto (TB 44) 

Martin Broughton was not correct in telling the Health Committee last week that the WHO projections of about 10 million deaths a year from tobacco were based only on evidence from white American males. It is true that when in the late 1980s we first produced such estimated we were chiefly using studies from the UK and US, but since then there have been large studies in developing countries that confirm that these projections are appropriate.

Indeed, the largest study of tobacco deaths ever undertaken was done in China: a brief report of it from Nature Medicine (1999; 5: 15-17) is enclosed . . .

With population growth, therefore, tobacco will cause about as many deaths in India as in China over the next few decades, ie an average of about a million a year in the first decade of the 21st century and about two million a year in the third decade. (Interestingly, Indian smokers have substantially higher rates of premature death than non-smokers not only for neoplastic, vascular and chronic respiratory disease, but also for tuberculosis; TB is still a major cause of death in India.)

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APPENDIX 18: Letter from Professor Jack E Hennifield to the Clerk of the Committee (TB 30) 

My first conclusion is that there is now overwhelming evidence that the major tobacco companies (ie, British American Tobacco Co and Philip Morris Inc) have been making false claims about the tar and nicotine deliveries to consumers and that these claims were willful attempts to deceive people in effort, in their own words, to "keep smokers in the franchise" and "delay the quitting process". Furthermore the efforts included cigarette design techniques intended to cheat the ISO and FTC cigarette testing methods, and that the companies had no evidence that the cigarettes with claims to be lower in tar and nicotine offered the health benefits implied in their advertising or trademarked brand names. Indeed the tobacco companies' own data indicated that so-called "light" cigarettes may have served to increase the health risk to consumers.

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Health Committee sets new anti-tobacco agenda, dismantles tobacco industry rhetoric and pushes BAT towards a smuggling investigation 

ASH hailed the Health Committee report into the tobacco industry as bold new thinking opening the way for a major overhaul of the regulation of the tobacco industry.

"The companies have had it much too easy for much too long" said Clive Bates, Director of ASH, "when you consider that cigarettes are by far the most dangerous consumer product ever invented, the regulation of just about every aspect of the contents, design, consumer information and marketing of the product has been completely inadequate."

"A ragbag of feeble voluntary agreements and supervision by a few harassed and over-stretched officials has basically left the tobacco industry untroubled by any meaningful regulation to date." said Bates.

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APPENDIX 21: Letter from Dr John Slade to the Clerk of the Committee (TB 26) 

While the tobacco industry has secretly understood the addictive and toxic nature of its products, it has thrown a cover over the engineering and design of its products preventing health officials from knowing whether tobacco products are being manufactured with the least possible toxicity and addictiveness. The available evidence indicates, in fact, that cigarettes are deliberately designed to maximize addiction. . .

There also, frankly, is a large knowledge gap. Industry personnel have most of the active, working knowledge of how their products are designed and how they work. Government and non-government public health workers are at a tremendous disadvantage in this area.

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Health Committee Report a 'thoughtful but inconsistent' contribution to progress on tobacco issues 

British American Tobacco believes today's report by the UK House of Commons Health Committee into the tobacco industry and the health risks of smoking is a thoughtful but inconsistent contribution to achieving progress on the issues surrounding tobacco.

On an initial reading, the report adopts some constructive proposals already in the public domain, including many already proposed to the Government by British American Tobacco, but contains many contradictions.

· The Committee says: "we have not found any explicit evidence to suggest that tobacco companies specifically and knowingly target children".

We welcome this finding, which reflects the reality of our marketing, and we are pleased that the Committee has adopted our suggestions for independent research into why teenagers smoke, ways for teenagers themselves to be involved in messages to their peers about adult products such as cigarettes, and more Government support for proof-of-age cards.

· However, in proposals to tackle under-age smoking, the Committee has stopped short of recommending several effective steps, such as raising the UK legal purchase age from 16 to 18.

We believe the UK legal age should be raised to 18

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Prior Disclosure to Department of Health With Brand Variant Identified 

Brand Code 5317: Marlboro KS FTB

Substances on Product in decreasing order of addition level

Sucrose and sucrose syrup

Glycerol

Calcium carbonate (Cigarette paper)

Propylene glycol

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APPENDIX 36: Supplementary evidence by R J Reynolds Tobacco (UK) Limited (TB 31B) 

Further to your letter dated 17 February, which was addressed to Dr Axel Gietz, and my subsequent telephone conversations with Tom Goldsmith and Frank McShane, please find enclosed the information relating to additives which you requested. . .

Benington Filters 84 mm

Substances on Product in decreasing order of addition level

Glycerol

Calcium carbonate

Polyvinyl alcohol

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APPENDIX 42: Letter from the Vice President Corporate Affairs, Philip Morris, European Union Region to the Clerk of the Committee (TB 19D) 

Thank you for your letter dated 28 February 2000, in which you request on behalf of the Committee that I provide the basis for my comment that Professor Perry's "affiliation with the industry and with Philip Morris was very well known".

My statement that Professor Roger Perry's association with tobacco companies was well known was based on my understanding that the relationship was reported in the media as early as 1988. Indeed, as I stated to the Committee, Professor Perry was publicly criticised for his involvement with the tobacco companies. The attached news articles and radio broadcast transcript are examples of the publicity that Professor Perry's relationship with the tobacco industry and Philip Morris received in 1988.

Further, in a 1998 news article (also attached) it was reported that Frank Cranmer, a clerk to the Environment Committee at a time when Professor Perry was special adviser to that committee, acknowledged that the members of the Environment Committee were aware Professor Perry had a relationship with the tobacco industry.

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APPENDIX 35: Supplementary evidence by Philip Morris 

In response to your request of 17 February enclosed is a list of ingredients used in the manufacture of cigarettes distributed for sale in the United Kingdom on behalf of Philip Morris Europe SA and its affiliates. The list is identical to that previously provided to the Department of Health save for the identification of each brand variant. I am also enclosing a list of ingredients which follows the same format but has been updated to reflect the reformulation of certain brand variants which occurred subsequent to the provision of the information to the Department of Health. . .

Marlboro King Size Fliptop Box

Substances on Product in decreasing order of addition level

Sucrose and sucrose syrup

Glycerol

Calcium carbonate (Cigarette paper)

Propylene glycol

Cocoa, cocoa shells and extract, cocoa distillate and butter

Licorice root, fluid, extract and powder

Diammonium hydrogen phosphate

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Tobacco giant faces smuggling claims inquiry 

BRITAIN'S biggest tobacco company faces a government inquiry over allegations that it encouraged cigarette smuggling in Third World countries to boost sales.

Stephen Byers, the Trade and Industry Secretary, yesterday signalled that he would accept a recommendation from a Commons committee to investigate claims that British American Tobacco took part in smuggling in Asia and Latin America. . .

The MPs base their concern about BAT on evidence to the committee by the anti-smoking organisation, ASH, and newspaper reports that BAT exploited the smuggling of billions of cigarettes to boost sales and lure younger smokers.

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APPENDIX 34: Supplementary evidence by Imperial Tobacco Group Plc (TB 13D) 

The identity of the additives used in our current UK cigarette brands appears to be of interest to public health and regulatory bodies. In order to be of assistance to them and to prevent them having to ask for this information again we will be putting the enclosed information on our company website in the near future. . .

Brand Name: Lambert & Butler King Size

Substances on Product in decreasing order of addition level.

Calcium carbonate

Cellulose fibre

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APPENDIX 37: Letter from the Head of Corporate Affairs Gallaher Group Plc to the Clerk of the Committee (TB 8G) 

Immediately following receipt of your letter, I instructed our lawyers Simmons & Simmons to consider the most appropriate way of providing you with documents in an electronically readable form. You will appreciate from my letter of 10 January 2000 that, from their review of our files up to 1995, Simmons & Simmons identified approximately 3.2 million pages of paper which might, in the broadest sense, be potentially relevant to issues that have arisen or might in the future arise in smoking and health litigation. . .

Simmons & Simmons will be delivering 16 CD roms to your offices containing the Gallaher documents that were provided by Leigh, Day & Co prior to the abandonment of that litigation by Mr Day's clients. . .

Simmons & Simmons is arranging for a set of non-encrypted CDs to be produced for your use. All that will be required to review the documents will be software capable of reading images in a "tiff" format, such as WangImage, which I am told is bundled with Windows98.

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