** This article has been updated with the results of a survey aimed at measuring the efficiency of the campaign.**
Tobacco is the single largest cause of avoidable death in the EU accounting for over 650,000 deaths each year. It is estimated that the sickness and death caused by smoking costs EU countries at least 100 billion euro a year, the equivalent of 1% of GDP.
On 1 March 2005, two days after the entry into force of the first international tobacco control treaty, the Commission launched a new 72 million Euro anti-smoking campaign. Dubbed “Help: for a Life without tobacco", it aims to promote a tobacco-free lifestyle, highlight the dangers of passive smoking and support the trend towards tobacco-free public places. Adolescents and young adults will be the main target groups.
The campaign will run until 2008 and will include roadshows in all 25 EU capitals, TV and cinema advertising campaigns and other media events. A dedicated website www.Help-eu.com will give information and support for people who want to quit.
“HELP” is the second major EU-wide anti-smoking campaign conducted by the Commission. It will build on the experience of the first such campaign, “Feel Free to Say No”, which ran between 2002 and 2004.
UPDATE: The European Commission published the results of a survey aimed at measuring the efficiency of the campaign.
It is a curious paradox that EU campaigns against smoking are financed from a budget line which is dedicated to supporting farmers in Europe to grow tobacco! In total, the EU spends more than 1 billion Euros every year in subsidies to a small group of tobacco farmers.
Many NGOs have consistently called for an end to using taxpayers money to finance the production of tobacco. Running an anti-smoking campaign while actively growing tobacco is one of the most striking examples of EU’s policy incoherence.
