Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-06-13-Speech-2-104"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20000613.10.2-104"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of ill health and premature death throughout most of the world. In Scotland, which I represent, one in five people will die of smoking-related diseases. We have an opportunity of doing something about that this week. We must pass this report into law and thus save lives.
The reality that smoking kills is not getting across at the moment. We need a bigger, bolder and clearer health message to make smokers more aware. If the size of the health warning directly reflected the risk to health, the label would cover the whole cigarette packet.
Half of all long-term smokers will eventually be killed by tobacco and of these half will die during middle age, losing 20 to 25 years of their lives. This directive will save lives because it is going to alter the content of cigarettes by reducing tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide yields and do away with misleading descriptions, such as "light" and mild". Consumers, especially young women, are being sold the idea that so-called "light" or "mild" cigarettes are better for them, as if they were the tobacco equivalent of low-fat yoghurt. However, low-fat yoghurt does not rot your teeth, blacken your lungs or put you on a ventilator. Yet smokers of mild cigarettes smoke more deeply to get the same nicotine hit as smokers of other products and receive the same level of damage.
I want to make health warnings bigger, better and bolder: 40% on the front, 50% on the back. Health Canada recently carried out research on the effects of increasing the size of the area occupied by health warnings on cigarette packets. The result proved that larger warning messages better encouraged smokers to stop. Adoption of the directive would open the possibility for the improvement of health for millions. We have the opportunity and responsibility to act positively on this today."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples