Sir, - The Dean of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians, Dr Rosaleen Corcoran, in a letter to The Irish Times (June 14th), attempted to set the record straight in relation to passive smoking.
As an MEP I, too, have been very concerned that the current series of advertisements from the Philip Morris Corporation may confuse the public. Passive smoking does serious damage to health, a fact which has been conclusively proven.
As part of the CAP reform, the European Commission, set aside £9 million for research into so called "safe tobacco" in what was, in my view, a sop to the anti smoking lobby. After three years, only £4,800 of that money has been spent!
Last year, alone, the EU spent over £800 million subsidising tobacco producers in the Community, but only £1.2 million on anti smoking campaigns. This is a clear example of the Commission's bias towards the tobacco industry. I have now requested that the Commission immediately transfer the £9 million, which will clearly not be spent, to an anti smoking programme, targeted at young females, whose health is most at risk. - Yours, etc.
European Parliament Office, 43 Molesworth Street,
Dublin 2.