pressrepublican.com, Europa, 8 de Julio de 2013

Lack of ambition for tobacco-free Europe is 'alarming'

If policy-makers continue to sit on their hands, the chronic lung and airways disease COPD will become the world's third biggest killer by 2030. Instead the EU should introduce robust tobacco controls, says campaign group

The European Union has a duty to safeguard its citizens from health threats, according to its treaty. Yet the EU is not achieving these objectives, in particular with regards to protecting the population from breathing difficulties, which have huge social and financial impacts and lead to social and care inequalities, lost work days and premature death. Lungs are affected by the pollutants in the air we breathe, and particularly, in tobacco smoke.

Smoking causes Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, a life-threatening chronic lung and airways disease that gets very little attention from EU policy-makers despite the fact that one in ten Europeans suffer from it. That is roughly 50 million citizens. COPD is treatable but not curable. It causes wheezing, shortness of breath, never-ending coughs, and chest tightness. It also makes it hard to move air in and out of the lungs.

COPD includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. It is the fifth cause of death worldwide, as many women and men suffer from the disease, and according to the World Health Organization will be the third leading cause of death by 2030 if policy-makers keep sitting on their hands and do not intervene on the risk factors. 

The EU has a golden opportunity to drastically reduce the burden of COPD with the adoption of robust tobacco control measures, as proposed in the currently debated review of the Tobacco Products Directive. This updated piece of legislation aims to prevent young people from taking up smoking and help existing smokers to quit or reduce their tobacco consumption. Firm legislation on tobacco is critical as smoking kills about 700,000 Europeans each year – the equivalent of three Hiroshima bombs annually.

It is essential to put a strong focus on prevention, to reduce the appeal of smoking and to make it hard to start the habit in order to significantly reduce the occurrence of COPD. We must strive to find ways to reduce the incidence of COPD, and this directive could be one. Measures on availability, costs, packaging of tobacco and on flavoring of the products, among others, have proven to be efficient to help reduce the number of smokers.

Yet the proposed directive and subsequent compromised changes – still to be adopted by the European Parliament and full Council of member states – show the EU is taking only timid steps towards a substantial decrease in tobacco smoke which, in turn, would automatically lower the number of COPD sufferers. Late last month EU health ministers watered down the European Commission's proposed directive.

They said that health warnings, both textual and pictorial, should cover 65 per cent of the pack instead of the 75  per cent originally proposed, rejected the planned ban of slim cigarettes and did not take measures to reduce sugar and ammonia in the composition of a cigarette – the latter components are not part of the proposed directive. Such concessions to the tobacco industry are a slap in the face of the European public health community and show an alarming lack of ambition and vision for a future EU free of tobacco.

Investing in COPD prevention will yield only positive returns. It will secure better health outcomes by enabling people to remain healthier and active longer and therefore boost a sustainable economic growth. COPD costs the EU approximately €10.6bn in care and €28.5bn in productivity loss every year. These costs, born by European taxpayers, would be better spent on prevention measures.

The EU must respect its commitment to 'health in all policies' and refrain from adopting measures in the fields of agriculture, industry, trade, urban planning, transport and environment, to name just a few, that would negatively impact on the prevention of COPD and the lives of millions suffering from it. All the measures, knowledge and actions that can protect people from this scourge are available and ready to be used. Europe now needs strong will and leadership to actually demonstrate it can successfully protect its citizens from such health threats.

Catherine Hartmann is secretary general of the European COPD Coalition

Read more: http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/3689/lack-of-ambition-for-tobacco-free-europe-is-alarming#ixzz2YSJzbKzu