Tobacco firm influenced EU policy

BRUSSELS, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- One of the world's largest tobacco companies pushed EU policy to emphasize business interests ahead of public health, a study indicates.

Researchers at the universities of Bath and Edinburgh in Britain say they found evidence the cigarette giant British American Tobacco created a front group in the mid-1990s to shape EU policy in its favor, the EUobserver reported Wednesday.

The academics say they came to that conclusion after examining some 700 internal documents from the tobacco manufacturer. The study was funded by the Smoke-Free Partnership and Cancer Research UK.

They say BAT led a group of chemical, food, oil, pharmaceutical and other firms in a multiyear lobbying campaign aimed at shaping the European Union's impact assessment system.

As a whole, impact assessments work by assigning monetary values to both the costs and benefits of a particular policy.

BAT was worried about the imposition of restrictions against public smoking and tobacco advertising, researchers say.