Tory MEPs are set to make a last ditch attempt to stop Labour-led reforms designed to reduce the take up of smoking by children.
At lunchtime today the Conservative Party’s most senior MEP is expected to make a last ditch attempt to stop Labour-led reforms designed to reduce the take up of smoking by children.
New European legislation, which has been steered through the European Parliament by Labour MEP Linda McAvan, will have its final vote today. The package has the support of a significant majority of the European Parliament and the backing of almost all EU countries, with the UK government strongly supportive.
The Tories’ ECR group was the only political group to oppose the agreement with national governments in December; the Tories voted against the agreement as a whole in committee last month, and various Tory MEPs tabled tobacco industry amendments throughout the process.
The Conservatives are now using last-minute tactics to delay the whole thing on a technicality.
Martin Callanan, the lead MEP on this issue for the ECR group, has made a formal request to delay the vote tomorrow. Just before the vote, he is expected to disrupt proceedings and force a vote on postponement. Every other mainstream political group supports the agreement.
Commenting on the move, Labour’s European spokesperson on the environment Linda McAvan MEP told Left Foot Forward:
“It is one thing to vote against the agreement, which we expect all Tory and UKIP MEPs to do, but it is another to actively campaign to derail it.
“Postponement would mean it is very unlikely we will have a tobacco directive in time for the elections, kicking the law into the long grass. It is exactly what the tobacco industry wants, as it will buy them another few years.”
The measures being voted on today include larger graphic warnings on 65 per cent of tobacco products, with national governments free to go further and introduce plain packaging; a ban on flavoured cigarettes and lipstick and perfume packs, which are specifically targeted at young people; and proper regulation of e-cigarettes for the first time.
Tobacco is the cause of more than 100,000 deaths each year in the UK – nearly half of smokers will die from a smoking related disease – and remains the leading cause of preventable premature deaths across Europe.
More than 700,000 people a year die in the European Union as a result of smoking and 70 per cent of those started smoking before the age of 18.
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16 Responses to “Tories make last-ditch attempt to prevent action on take up of smoking by children”
harleyrider1778
As we can all see the END GAME is to first ban car smoking and then follow it up with a ban in the homes,likely using the children for this purpose yet again. Then if they can get their final smoking rates at a certain level tobacco control plans on pushing the government for OUT RIGHT PROHIBITION ON TOBACCO PRODUCTS!
Second Hand/ Third Hand Smoke: Trigger For Outrage –Catalyst For Change?
•Smoke Free Public Places
•Smoke Free Work Places
•Smoke Free Parks/Open Spaces
•Smoke Free Private Transport
•Smoke Free Homes
Positioning Tobacco Endgame In The Post-2015 Development Agenda
UNSustainable Development Goals Or Expanded Millennium Development Goals
Can tobacco control endgame analysis learn anything from …
tobaccocontrolbmj
The thirdhand and second hand smoke MYTHS were created to create public fear and outrage. They are basically telling us that in the above! TRIGGER FOR OUTRAGE!
harleyrider1778
Tobacco is the cause of more than 100,000 deaths each year in the UK – nearly half of smokers will die from a smoking related disease – and remains the leading cause of preventable premature deaths across Europe.
Not 1 Death or Sickness Etiologically Assigned to Tobacco. All the diseases attributed to smoking are also present in non smokers. It means, in other words, that they are multifactorial, that is, the result of the interaction of tens, hundreds, sometimes thousands of factors, either known or suspected contributors – of which smoking can be one.
What proof of disease they have NONE and Never did!
JOINT STATEMENT ON THE RE-ASSESSMENT OF THE TOXICOLOGICAL TESTING OF TOBACCO PRODUCTS”
7 October, the COT meeting on 26 October and the COC meeting on 18
November 2004.
http://cot.food.gov.uk/pdfs/cotstatementtobacco0409
“5. The Committees commented that tobacco smoke was a highly complex chemical mixture and that the causative agents for smoke induced diseases (such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, effects on reproduction and on offspring) was unknown. The mechanisms by which tobacco induced adverse effects were not established. The best information related to tobacco smoke – induced lung cancer, but even in this instance a detailed mechanism was not available. The Committees therefore agreed that on the basis of current knowledge it would be very difficult to identify a toxicological testing strategy or a biomonitoring approach for use in volunteer studies with smokers where the end-points determined or biomarkers measured were predictive of the overall burden of tobacco-induced adverse disease.”
In other words … our first hand smoke theory is so lame we can’t even design a bogus lab experiment to prove it. In fact … we don’t even know how tobacco does all of the magical things we claim it does.
The greatest threat to the second hand theory is the weakness of the first hand theory.
Dragonmum
Shame it’s all happened about three years too late for MacAvan and the Labour Party – Canute failed to turn back the tide, and so will they. Vapers are organised Europe-wide and we learned such a lot from our days as persecuted smokers. Now we hold the moral high-ground and our opponents have amply demonstrated how deep in the pockets of the multinationals (P and T) they are embedded. So deep they feel powerful enough to ignore the best peer-reviewed scientific evidence, and to condemn millions to a painful death. Well, we just can’t let that happen, can we? When they try to enshrine this in law, no matter which member state, they’d better be prepared for not only Legal action, but a lot of illegal action too – and good luck with policing that, Class A drugs haven’t suffered a lot!!!
Dragonmum
Precisely. Which is why, when a viable alternative comes on the market ALL politicians should endorse it and not indulge in shabby political chicanery which will ensure that smokers keep smoking. Much to the delight of the Pharmaceutical and Tobacco Multinationals – and Governments of whatever colour of course.
Linda
Don’t try and dishonour Martin Callanan, he is one of the few MEPs who have had the guts to stand up and be counted, and he is the one who will get the votes of vapers in the future. All of you who voted for article 18 should be totally ashamed of yourselves. You are not representing the people who voted for you, you are more interested in your own salaries and pensions. And as for Linda MacAvan remember ” what goes around comes around.” It is not often I wish bad things for someone, but I wish you a slow painful death, just like the many Vapers you are condemning to death. Shame on you.