EXPORTING TOBACCO ADDICTION FROM THE USA

Sir,

As you comment in your May 30, editorial [1] it is not only American
tobacco companies that export tobacco addiction in the face of falling
sales at home. The UK is playing its own major part in this process;
indeed, the value of UK tobacco exports has more than doubled in the past
10 years, from IEP450 million to IEP1136 million, and more than half these
exports are to countries outside the European Union.[2]

George Alberti, President of the Royal College of Physicians, wrote to
Foreign Secretary Robin Cook in December 1997 to suggest that the
Government should take the same ethical approach to tobacco exports as it
does to the exporting of military weapons, since by the year 2025 it is
estimated that tobacco will account for 10 million deaths per year
worldwide. Cook has not yet replied.

John Britton, Tobacco Advisory Group, Royal College of Physicians, Regent's
Park London NW1 4LE, UK

References:

1 Editorial. Exporting tobacco addiction from the USA. Lancet 1998; 351:
1597.
(http://www.thelancet.com/newlancet/reg/issues/vol351no9116/editorial1597.ht
ml)

2 Britton J. Tobacco: the epidemic we could all avoid. Thorax 1997; 52:
1021-22.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski