HC Deb 27 October 1975 vol 898 cc355-7W
Mr. Cartwright

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether she will take steps to require cigarette manufacturers to publish the tar and nicotine content of their cigarettes on packets and in advertising.

Dr. Owen

Under the terms of an agreement made in September last year between the Department and United Kingdom cigarette manufacturers, they now put the tar group of a brand on Press and poster advertisements and in promotional leaflets for that brand. On 29th August this year the manufacturers announced that they had now also accepted the Department's proposal that the appropriate tar group description for the brand should be included on cigarette packets. They have decided to print it

the years 1972, 1973 and 1974 and if the type of offence investigated could be listed as in the table on page 52 of the report of The Committee on Abuse of Social Security Benefits.

Mr. O'Malley

The information requested is as follows:

either on the tear-tape or on the packet itself beneath the Government health warning.

I have not asked manufacturers to take similar action regarding nicotine content. Information about the nicotine as well as the tar yields of over 100 brands of cigarettes is made available in posters issued twice a year by the health departments in the United Kingdom. These posters are widely distributed through health authorities and copies are also sent for display to post offices and retail tobacconists. Leaflets for members of the public containing similar information are also distributed twice a year.

Whether these measures give the public sufficient information about the levels of the various smoke constituents adjudged to be harmful of cigarettes is a matter I have under review. I shall be taking account of advice I expect to receive from the Independent Scientific Committee on Smoking and Health on the dangers to health from the various substances in cigarettes smoke, in particular from nicotine and carbon monoxide.