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Subject:
Will you protect Turkey's tobacco ad ban from Formula One? Prime Minister
Mr. Abdullah Gul Dear Prime Minister Gul The Formula One Administration recently decided to hold races in 2005 in Istanbul, Turkey, one year before Formula One has agreed to end all tobacco sponsorship. Formula One races have long been integral to the tobacco industry's worldwide marketing efforts. A recent survey of 13-17 year olds in Turkey (n=6000) found that 50% of teenagers have seen tobacco advertising on race cars, and that the more exposed a teenager is to internationally-televised automobile races, the more likely they are to smoke. In a letter sent by Max Mosley, President of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile, to Essential Action on 13 September, 2002, he said,"We always obey the law in each country we visit." He further stated that, "We would not attempt to hold a Formula One race in a country where [tobacco sponsorship] is not allowed." Yet, under Turkey's 1996 tobacco advertising ban, tobacco industry sponsorship of Formula One is illegal. One might logically conclude from Mr. Mosley's letter that Formula One plans to sabotage Turkey's tobacco advertising ban, by seeking to exempt Formula One races from it. Such a concern is not unfounded. Earlier this year, a member of the Turkish Parliament proposed a bill to exempt Formula One races from the country's tobacco advertising ban. The Turkish public health community successful campaigned against this attempt to render the tobacco advertising ban ineffective, and the bill was withdrawn in May 2002. In 1998, on the eve of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, Mr. Mosley announced that Formula One would end its use of tobacco sponsorship by 2002, if it could be shown that tobacco advertising encourages people to smoke. While significant evidence was shared with Formula One, including internal tobacco industry documents that attest to the importance of Formula One in recruiting new smokers, Formula One failed to live up to its public promise. Instead, Formula One has aggressively challenged countries with tobacco sponsorship bans. This fall, when Belgium refused to exempt Formula One from its tobacco sponsorship ban (due to come into effect in August 2003), Formula One dropped the Belgian Grand Prix. The BBC reported on November 4, 2002, that Mr. Mosley is strongly encouraging Belgium to adjust its laws to allow for a resumption of the Grand Prix in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Similarly, Formula One successfully lobbied for an exemption from the UK's new tobacco advertising ban. Cigarettes are as addictive as heroin. Moreover, they kill 50% of people who smoke them. The World Health Organization projects that over 10 million people will be killed by tobacco by 2025. This is the equivalent of nearly 95 jet planes* crashing daily, every single day of the year, year after year. The tobacco terror is real. The global carnage wouldn't exist if it weren't for the tobacco industry's addiction to the immense profitability of cigarettes. Likewise, it appears that Formula One is heavily addicted to the $350 million-a-year in tobacco industry sponsorships that it receives -- sponsorships whose primary purpuse is to fuel cigarette sales, thereby perpetuating the global massacre. It is vital that the Turkish government stands firmly behind its commitment to public health over the profits of the Merchants of Death, and not give in to pressure to weaken its strong public health laws. Three years is plenty of time for Formula One teams to come up with alternative sponsorship sources. I join many others around the world in urging you to issue a public statement as soon as possible, confirming that Turkey will not weaken its public health laws to suit the tobacco industry's deadly agenda. Specifically, it should be publicly stated that Formula One races in Instanbul in 2005 will be tobacco sponsorship - free! * Boeing 747-300 = 289 passengers |