Photo: DutchNews.nl |
Ex-smokers and medical associations are threatening
legal action to ban cigarettes that exceed European norms for nicotine, tar and
carbon monoxide, Trouw reported on Wednesday.
Results from a recent test on 100
cigarette brands show that the amount of tar can be up to 26 times the official
norm. Nicotine and carbon monoxide levels are also far too high in most brands.
The test, published by the public health institute RIVM in June, was conducted
by covering the small ventilation holes in the filter paper, a method that
approaches the way cigarettes are actually smoked.
The official test leaves
these holes, put there by the tobacco industry, uncovered. But smokers compress
the holes with their lips and fingers and thus inhale much more of the
carcinogenic and addictive substances.
Both the RIVM and health and safety
watchdog NVWA pulled out of a commission which designed this controversial
European measuring method because 10 of the 12 members worked in the tobacco
industry.
In a reaction market leaders Philip Morris and British American
Tobacco said their cigarettes comply with European norms and national Dutch
legislation regarding tobacco.
Peter van den Driest, spokesperson for Philip
Morris, said the European test was never meant to measure ‘actual exposure’ of
smokers to tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide.
‘It was meant to enable to
compare brands of cigarettes that are smoked in an identical way,’ he told the
paper. Tobacco producers say it is up to governments to decide which testing
method to use.
The organisations’ first port of call is health and safety
watchdog NVWA but if it fails to enforce the tobacco legislation, they will go
to court. Doing nothing would constitute an infringement of human rights, a
lawyer for the organisations claims.
No comments:
Post a Comment