House urges ban on tobacco advertising

THE HOUSE Health Committee wants to ban all tobacco advertising and fine offenders up to £30,000 or throw them in jail, Committee chairman Antonis Karas said yesterday.

The relevant proposal was yesterday discussed in a meeting of the Committee, which has launched an anti-smoking crusade to protect public health and bring Cyprus into line with European practices.

“We want to ban the advertising of tobacco products and charge offenders between £1,000 and £30,000, and in some cases punish them with imprisonment,” Karas told reporters after the meeting.

“We will listen to what smokers have to say, but since we admit that smoking is very harmful to health we will not allow practices promoting it,” he argued, adding that smokers were free to continue smoking.

The Committee chairman said a ban on tobacco advertising was necessary because such ads were mainly targeted at non-smokers, “especially innocent people and minors”.

He said many European countries had already outlawed such advertisements, while the EU was also planning to ban it.

“These advertisements benefit no one except the tobacco producers,” Karas said.

The anti-smoking bill is not expected to be voted on this month.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.