The European Union may publish the chemicals and additives used in cigarettes in a new push to curb smoking among its 450 million consumers.

The move follows a Europe-wide ban on newspaper, magazine and radio advertisements for tobacco products, due to come into force on 1 August 2005, and strengthened health warnings including pictures of rotting lungs on cigarette packets. The EU's 25 countries are seeking to collect data from manufacturers on the substances used in cigarettes, spokesman Philip Tod said at a press briefing in Brussels. "There's a discussion as to what we do with that information,'' he said.
Scotland, Ireland, Italy and Malta have banned smoking from public places and England and Spain plan restrictions on tobacco in restaurants and bars. The Western European cigarette market shrank 8 per cent in 2004 as France and Germany raised tobacco taxes, according to Altria Group. Gallaher Group, the UK maker of Silk Cut cigarettes, said 28 June it expects annual profit from its European tobacco business to rise no more than 2 per cent. "There are issues about some of the additives,'' said Amanda Sandford, research manager of ASH, a UK anti-smoking group. "But there is a danger that people can get sidetracked by it all and there are more important things like getting smoking banned in all public places.''  British American Tobacco already lists the ingredients in its cigarettes from Acetanisole to Ylang ylang oil on its Web site but won't currently disclose the "commercially sensitive'' quantities in each brand, spokeswoman Teresa La Thangue said. (pi)