EU-wide smoking study

A Europe-wide study of anti-smoking policies due out this week will pour scorn on German and Czech efforts to curb the habit while praising Iceland and Britain for their battle against tobacco.

Luk Joossens, who co-ordinated the report for the European Network for Smoking Prevention, told Reuters the dossier would single out Luxembourg and the Czech Republic for criticism over their cheap cigarettes.

The report, to be released tomorrow, ranks the European Union's 25 member states, as well as neighbours Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland, for their progress on a range of anti-smoking measures recommended by the World Bank.

Iceland comes top as it has taken almost all of the Bank's measures to heart, Mr Joossens said. Britain also scores highly, particularly for making cigarettes so expensive with tax.

World Bank research suggests raising prices by 10 per cent cuts cigarette consumption in a wealthy country by four per cent.

Data from Philip Morris France, a unit of Altria Group Inc. shows a packet of 20 Marlboro cigarettes cost €6.60 in Britain in January, but €2.90 in Luxembourg.

"The UK certainly is doing very well on government spending, on cessation programmes and on prices, but it's doing very badly on smoke-free places," Mr Joossens said.

In March, Ireland became the first country to ban smoking in restaurants, bars and pubs. Norway and Malta have since instituted similar bans and incoming European Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou last week urged all EU governments to follow Ireland's example within five years.

Luxembourg and the Czech Republic both had a "very bad" policy of keeping cigarettes cheap in relation to wages, Mr Joossens said.

"Germany is certainly lagging behind," Mr Joossens said. "It's in the lowest 10 countries, so it could clearly do better."

The study marked countries on six anti-smoking measures to calculate a total score. The criteria include raising tax on cigarettes, smoke-free policies in offices, bars and restaurants, anti-tobacco advertising and clear warnings on cigarette packets.

The survey also rated access to treatment for nicotine addiction and increased government "tobacco control" budgets, which go to fund other anti-smoking measures.

The World Health Organisation says tobacco is the world's second biggest killer, claiming some five million lives every year.

Mr Joossens said his study, which also examined smoking rates over the last two decades, showed a decline in adult smoking.

But smoking among young people has not fallen over the last 10 years in most regions.