people from the extreme dangers of tobacco. If people wish to smoke, so be it, but we must not allow tobacco companies to push a killer on Bermudians. We would take every step to prevent people being killed by a deadly virus. We must take every step to protect people from being killed by addictive tobacco.

If we adopt protection and people continue to smoke, then it is a personal problem, but if we do not adopt protection, then we are assisting a killer.

There has been enormous publicity in recent years about both the dangers of tobacco and the ruthless and immoral behaviour of tobacco companies in pushing tobacco sales. Government has a duty to stop the pushing.

We were very interested in a news service story this week from Belgium.

The Belgian parliament last Thursday approved a law banning all tobacco and cigarette advertising and sponsorship from 1999.

A parliamentary spokesman said the law was mainly aimed at stopping the increase of smoking among youngsters.

Belgian radio said only France, Finland and Canada had similar strict bans on tobacco advertising.

Sporting groups in Belgium are known to be worried about the effect the ban will have on events such as Belgium's leg of the Formula One motor racing world championship at Spa-Francorchamps. The ban, due to come into effect on January 1, 1999, applies to roadside billboards, newspaper advertising and sponsorship of sports, cultural and musical events.

But it does not apply to foreign publications sold in Belgium and the law does not ban television sports coverage of tobacco-sponsored events organised outside Belgium.

It seems to us that the law as formulated in Belgium would make great sense for Bermuda. The day will come when all countries will ban tobacco advertising but until then, Bermuda will have to continue importing foreign publications containing tobacco ads. These days most of those carry strong warnings against smoking.

But make no mistake, tobacco companies are well aware of that and are very busy moving to "sponsorship'' where their dollars make them seem like good guys when, in fact, they are using respectable and constructive events to addict young people. That is what they want. They mean to hook young people and keep them for customers.

Attaching tobacco to sport is one of the most destructive things tobacco companies do, but it would be impossible to ban broadcast sport because of cigarette billboards. We can, however, ban their up-close use in Bermuda.

We know that there is a major tobacco lobby in Bermuda with very close connections to the ruling party. However, we would like to see Government announce that it cares for the health of Bermudians and is tired of the high cost of treating tobacco related diseases and will ban the pushing of tobacco.