Tobacco lobby ‘trying to dilute’ EU directive

The tobacco lobby is trying to water down the EU Tobacco Products Directive that was about to be proposed by former European Commissioner John Dalli before he resigned, one of Europe’s leading public health experts warned yesterday. Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said last month’s resignation of Mr Dalli as EU Health Commissioner and the subsequent burglary in Brussels of anti-tobacco and public health organisations had raised concerns among his peers. “There is a strong suspicion of foul play (among the public health community)... particularly given that we have such a wealth of evidence of how the tobacco industry has worked in the past,” said Prof. McKee, citing the industry’s attempts to question evidence that second-hand smoke was damaging. “The tobacco industry has a long history of distorting evidence, it does not have clean hands,” he said. Prof. McKee is in Malta for the European Public Health Conference. Following an investigation by the EU anti-fraud office OLAF, Mr Dalli was forced to resign his post on October 16, just six days before the directive was to be presented to the Commission. It was...