Big Tobacco faces new assault

By CATHERINE FIELD in Paris

PARIS - France has opened up several fronts against smoking, attacking the tobacco giants in the law courts and targeting their products with punitive fiscal levies and a shock campaign to ostracise them.

President Jacques Chirac bemused many when in March he openly declared "war on tobacco" to combat cancer.

In the land of the Gauloise and the Gitane, the smoking culture has been rooted in the psyche as a peripheral symbol of sexuality, good dining and companionship.

Even so, cracks in Big Tobacco's French fortress are starting to emerge.

In an unprecedented move, a local state-run health insurance fund in St Nazaire, a city in western France, has filed a lawsuit against four tobacco giants, demanding reimbursement for the 18.66 million euros ($37.8 million) it spent to treat smoking-related illnesses.

Those targeted in the claim are the former state-owned cigarette-maker Seita, now renamed Altadis; Philip Morris, which has changed its name to Altria; JTI-Reynolds and BAT-Rothmans.

The claim dates back to 1997 when, according to the complaint, there was undeniable scientific evidence that tobacco, as well as being harmful, was clearly addictive, yet the companies did nothing to warn smokers of this.

"Tobacco addiction is very strong, pitched about halfway between cocaine and heroin," says the fund's lawyer, Francis Caballero.

Since 1997, he says, 1023 smokers have had to be treated for cancers of the lungs, larynx and throat and circulatory problems.

The French health service spends some €7 billion annually on treating smoking-related diseases.

This is the first time that a French health insurance fund has filed suit against the tobacco industry and it gives a powerful boost to a campaign that has been waged by individual long-term smokers who have fallen sick.

"This lawsuit is a gimmick; a thing without any legal value," said BAT's defence lawyer, Pierre Lenoir. "These people are trying to place themselves on the moral high ground, with high-flown moral arguments, but there is no basis in legal fact."

Altadis lawyer Pierre-Louis Dauzier said people were already well-informed about the risks of tobacco.

"There is no obligation to inform someone who is already informed."

A verdict in the case is expected on September 29.

Individual claims have had publicity value but negligible results, with the defendants taking cover behind the argument that, from 1976, all cigarette packets carried health warnings, and so the responsibility of smoking lay with the smoker.

Tax increases on January 1 forced up the price of cigarettes between 9 and 18 per cent, taking a packet of Gauloises to €3.50 ($7).

Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei is mulling proposals to raise prices 25 per cent a year for the next three years to help choke off demand.

New laws are being framed that would fine shopkeepers up to €7500 and jail them for up to a year if they sell cigarettes to anyone aged under 16.

Tobacco adverts disappeared several years ago from French billboards and newspapers.

This will be toughened up with new European Union rules banning tobacco sponsorship of major sporting events.

And from July 1, again in response to EU law, all cigarette packets sold in France will feature large, stark health warnings.

On the front side of the pack, at least 30 per cent of the area must have the warning "Smoking Kills" or "Smoking Seriously Harms You and Those Around You".

On the reverse side, 40 per cent must be given over to one of 14 EU-required warnings, such as "Smoking May Reduce the Blood Flow and Causes Impotence", "Smoking Can Cause Slow and Painful Death" and "Smoking Causes Ageing of the Skin".

These tough measures add to incentives, pushed by family doctors, to use nicotine patches, chewing gum or to attend stop-smoking courses.

But even though the campaign is being waged with great ferocity and the unheard-of backing of the President, the picture is mixed.

Sales of tobacco in France have slumped to their lowest level in 20 years, but the number of smokers is relatively stable.

Among men, smokers are declining (35 per cent of adult males smoke, compared with 75 per cent in 1950).

But the number of women smokers is rising alarmingly, accounting for 21 per cent of the adult female population - the highest since records began and more than three times the figure for 1968.