A leading anti-tobacco campaigner in the Republic has told the World Conference on Tobacco or Health of the need for tighter legislation on disclosure of information by tobacco companies.
Dr Fenton Howell, chairman of ASH (Action on Smoking and Health), pointed to inadequacies in Irish legislation which have allowed tobacco manufacturers to avoid disclosing the exact nature of cigarette additives.
He said he was particularly concerned about lack of knowledge in the State of reconstituted sheet, a process by which tobacco debris and other material is added to pure tobacco during manufacture.
He told delegates at a session on tobacco product-testing and disclosure of the need for international co-operation in assembling information on cigarette ingredients.
Calling for the setting up of regional toxicology centres, he pointed to the scarcity of experts internationally in this field, and the need to share information with developing countries.
With new tobacco legislation due for publication in the Republic this autumn, Dr Howell told The Irish Times he was confident that measures to improve the onus of disclosure on tobacco companies in the State would be included. It had taken some companies until late last year to comply with existing requirements, he said.
Mr Peter McDonnell, a Dublin solicitor who has issued proceedings on behalf of 206 plaintiffs against the tobacco industry in the State, told the conference that the Republic of Ireland had the potential to be the first battleground in Europe in the legal fight against tobacco multinationals.
"We are assembling a very strong group of experts to assist us in this process. We are co-operating with our colleagues in other jurisdictions, and in particular those who have fought and beaten the tobacco industry in the US," he said.
Mr McDonnell's presentation was made alongside that of Mr Stanley Rosenblatt, the lawyer in the recent Florida class action in which the US tobacco companies were ordered to pay $140 billion in punitive damages to sick smokers.
Dr Gerry McElwee of the Ulster Cancer Foundation presented a poster outlining the development of an effective method of smoking cessation for use by Northern Ireland's dentists.
He described how dental practices employed "the four As approach (Ask, Advise, Assist, Arrange) to smoking cessation advice. This has been shown to reduce smoking among dental patients," said Dr McElwee.
Ms Mary McDonnell of the National Sudden Infant Death Register presented research showing that 54 per cent of women under 20 years of age were smoking in the Republic.
Rather than focus on long-term disease prevention in this group of smokers, Ms McDonnell and her fellow researchers advocate the use of a health education package, which links Sudden Infant Death with smoking as the way forward.