Public statements sought

Australian anti-smoking advocates say that a US court order forcing tobacco companies to air statements about the dangers of smoking should be mirrored in Australia, according to a story in The Guardian.

Public health experts have written to the Australian heads of tobacco companies calling on them to run statements about the lethal nature of smoking and the addictiveness of smoking and nicotine.

The advocates want the companies also to reveal their deliberate attempts to make tobacco products more addictive.

In 2012, the Guardian said, the US federal court ordered major tobacco companies to run statements in the media admitting they had deceived US consumers for decades about the dangers of smoking. That decision had been upheld by the court in April, and the first of the statements was due to air next month in leading newspapers and on the ABC, CBS and NBC television networks.

The statements are due to run weekly for one year and are said to be costing the companies millions of dollars.

The court case has prompted a coalition of public health experts to write to the heads of British American Tobacco and Philip Morris in Australia calling on them to tell the truth about their tobacco products in a similar campaign.

‘We hope that you will share our view that Australians are entitled to the same level of information as the American public about these companies’ deceitful practices and the ways in which these companies and the tobacco industry more broadly have lied to the public and your consumers over decades,’ the letter states.