SNOOKER WINS REPRIEVE ON TOBACCO ADS

SNOOKER is set to get a three-year reprieve from the Government's ban on
tobacco sponsorship in sport under the same deal given to Formula One motor
racing.

Under proposals being drawn up by the Department of Health, the sport will
be given until 2006 to find other sponsors. The health education lobby
reacted angrily to the new concession and the anti-smoking group ASH (Action
on Smoking and Health) in Scotland said it would lobby the Scottish
parliament to deny snooker an extension.

The row blew up as the World Health Organisation launched World No Tobacco
Day today.

In December 1997 the UK signed up to a European Union directive committing
member states to outlawing tobacco sponsorship in sport by 2003, with a
three-year extension for sports that operate on more than one continent and
rely heavily on tobacco money.

The Government will publish draft regulations setting out how it intends to
implement the directive within the next few weeks. The regulations will list
the criteria sports must meet to win a three-year extension but will not
name individual sports.

Officials from sports seeking a reprieve will be asked to prove they meet
the criteria and it is understood ministers accept snooker's case.

Formula One motor racing has already been given a three-year reprieve on the
grounds that it is heavily reliant on tobacco sponsorship. But Labour faced
accusations of sleaze when it emerged that Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One's
chief executive, had donated UKP1 million to the party. Lord Neill, the
chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, subsequently told the
party to hand the money back.

Snooker's governing body the World Professional Billiards and Snooker
Association, has been lobbying the Government for a similar concession.

The WPBSA chief executive, Jim McKenzie, met the Prime Minister, Tony Blair,
in Downing Street in November 1997 when he complained that snooker was more
dependent on tobacco money than Formula One.

"We really have no argument about the Government taking tobacco out of
sport. I can see the good sense in that. But the issue was that Bernie
Ecclestone was getting preferential treatment. Tony Blair got very
aggressive when we accused him of that," he said.

Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare, the WPBSA president, said he was hopeful
that the exemption for Formula One would be extended to cover snooker and
indicated that other sports may benefit as well.

"It certainly made no sense to us that one sport should have this privilege
and the rest of us should be ignored," he told BBC Radio 4's the World at
One programme. I suppose the Government has come to realise that snooker in
particular - and possibly other sports as well - will have to be given the
same playing field as the rest."

However the move was condemned by anti-smoking campaigners, including the
chairman of the influential Commons health committee, David Hinchliffe, a
Labour MP.

"Snooker is a sport that features frequently in televised coverage and
therefore the tobacco people will realise they have got direct television
advertising of their products," he told the programme.

Wendy Ugolini, a spokeswoman for ASH, accused the Government of taking a
"half-hearted" attitude towards its commitment to end tobacco sponsorship in
sport.

"We're disappointed that the Government is allowing snooker an exemption but
we will be lobbying the Scottish parliament to see if they can implement the
European directive any earlier than Westminster."

A Department of Health spokeswoman said she was unable to comment on whether
snooker would qualify for a three-year reprieve.

She added: "The Government manifesto commitment was to end tobacco
advertising and the Government is going to do just that.

"The EU agreed that sports operating on a global scale would have an extra
three years to introduce the tobacco advertising ban so their sports would
not be jeopardised."

Meanwhile, SmithKline Beecham, Pharmacia & Upjohn and Novartis, three of the
world's biggest pharmaceutical companies, celebrated World No Tobacco Day by
forming a special task force to advise and help anti-smoking campaigners.

David Graham, in charge of developing nicotine replacement products at
Pharmacia & Upjohn, said: "There is a common agenda. We are all health care
companies which make products that can help people give up smoking.

"Organisations like the WHO and, increasingly, government departments, are
starting to take a stronger stance over treatment for tobacco dependence."

One third of all adults smoke - about 1.1 billion people across the world.
The WHO estimates that by 2020 tobacco will be the leading cause of death
and disability, killing more than ten million people a year - two million in
China alone.