POLAND ADOPTS FDA-LIKE RESTRICTIONS ON TOBACCO

Even Smoky Poland Adopts FDA-Like Restrictions on Tobacco

Even in Poland, where one out of every three adults is a heavy smoker, as is a leading candidate for president, there is very strong support for measures to discourage smoking very much like those proposed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US.

The Sejm, Poland's powerful lower house of Parliament, have just voted overwhelmingly - 335-9 - for a comprehensive antismoking program which is likely to pass the Polish Senate with ease. It provides that:

-- Smoking is banned in virtually all public places including all government offices, schools, and hospitals. Smoking in private work places is restricted to separate designated areas.

-- Cigarette ads are banned not only from radio, television, and movie theaters, but also in magazines for teen-agers and places frequented by young people including sporting areas.

-- The sale of cigarettes through vending machines is prohibited, as are all cigarette sales in universities, hospitals, sports facilities, and other places. Only persons at least 18 may buy cigarettes anywhere else.

-- Advertisers are required to devote at least 20% of their advertising space to warning the public about the dangers of smoking.

"If Poland - a country with a culture supportive of heavy smoking, and virtually no traditions of protecting nonsmokers or limiting teen smoking - can take these important steps, there's no reason why the US can't do the same," says law professor John Banzhaf, Executive Director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), a national antismoking organization.

"Buying cigarettes through vending machines, or being able to promote cigarettes to teens, are no more a right in the US than in Poland," he argues, noting the similarities between the FDA proposals and the Polish action.

The tobacco industry's complaint against the FDA's proposals charges that ASH's "threats," "pressure," and "a carefully orchestrated public relations campaign" were behind the agency's action.

The FDA's assertion of jurisdiction over cigarettes is based upon new legal principles established by ASH in a 1980 law suit against the agency.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Saturday, August 26, 1995

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL: John Banzhaf (202) 659-4310

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