Second-hand smoke adverts come under fire

HEALTH board chief executives and voluntary organisations are enraged by a Europe wide advertising campaign launched in Ireland yesterday by the tobacco company Philip Morris. A number of advertisements appeared in the national newspapers, including The Irish Times, about second hand or passive smoke.

The advertisements cited the relative health risks of various activities one mentioned a scientific study which linked cancer to drinking chlorinated water. Another referred to a study linking biscuits to heart disease, followed by the comment that "not everything described statistically as a risk is a meaningful risk". The advertisement claims there is no "sound justification for a campaign against second hand tobacco smoke".

Chief executives of the State's eight health boards condemned the advertisement as deliberately misleading. Recent legislation to restrict smoking in public areas "has been supported by the majority of non smokers and smokers alike". Restrictions, education and price control, they said in a statement, "are all combining to reduce the level of smokers in this country from 43 per cent in 1973 to less than 30 per cent in 1996".

The chief executive of the Irish Heart Foundation, Mr Paddy Murphy, said comparisons with biscuits or chlorine were "an irrelevant attempt to trivialise and cause confusion." Passive smoking was associated with a "small but real increase in the risk of heart disease".

He said newspapers should have carried a health warning with, the advertisement. "Eight thousand people in Ireland die each year from smoking related diseases. The tobacco industry has to find another 8,000 people each year to keep up its market share, and is targeting young people. It is very wrong to make a comparison between food and smoking. Food is always good as part of a balanced diet, but smoking is always wrong.

The Irish Cancer Society chief executive, Mr Tom Hudson, said the tobacco company interpreted research to its own advantage.