ACTIVISTS FILE SUIT AGAINST CZECH STATE OVER CHILDREN'S SMOKING
Anti-tobacco activists from the Chain of Love to Children civic
group have filed a lawsuit against the state and cigarette
producers over cigarette smoking by children, project
coordinator Martin Skapik told CTK yesterday.
Although the Czech Health Ministry informs people about certain
negative consequences of smoking, it allows tobacco products to
be sold in shops, the activists said in their complaint.
Tobacco companies are cheating consumers because they do not
place the concentration of chemical substances in their products
in advertisements or on cigarette packages, they said.
"It is clear that now the police have the last chance to take
reasonable measures to stop such business aimed towards children
and to implement the law on public health protection," Skapik
said.
Tobacco producers are knowingly trading in "illness and an
insidious drug, they cheat consumers and circumvent the law," he
said.
"Regardless of many warnings by our project organisers and other
organisations the Health Ministry tolerates this crime for
incomprehensible reasons and does not act according to the law
and its internal regulations," says the complaint which the
initiative has placed on its website.
