The original letter was sent by D. Vonspecht of British American Tobacco to C.H. Stuart Lockhart, BATCO-Board Deputy Chairman, Director-Europe.
This 1977 British American Tobacco (BAT) document relates the tobacco industry's early fears that European health ministries were starting to view tobacco as a public health problem. It discusses a proposed meeting of European Health Ministers wherein cigarette smoking was to be discussed as a public health hazard, right along with other subjects like poor food hygiene, alcohol consumption, drugs and abuse of medical remedies. It proposes first steps of how the tobacco industry could "block this activity at birth."
Of the meeting, the document states,
"We fear this may have the consequence that in the future 'Smoking and Health' will become a subject of European policy not only under the aspect of consumer protection but in all of its dimensions. The already most alarming approach which Mr. DeGave's Working Party on Tobacco has taken on behalf of the Consumers Consultative Committee may very well serve as a stepping stone on the way towards wider horizons of anti-smoking action...What appears most startling about all this is the impact with which the EEC action in this field seems to be gaining speed in the last few months. We shall have to find out which institutions and individual countries could be approached in order to block this activity at birth..."