Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health (SCOTH)

Welcome to the pages of the Department of Health's scientific committee (SCOTH) which advises the UK Chief Medical Officer on the health effects of smoking.

In 2003 to 2004 SCOTH undertook an examination of the latest evidence on the health effects of secondhand smoke:
Their report was published on 16 November

One of the commitments in the Health of the Nation White Paper and taken up in SCOTH's terms of reference was "to review existing controls on additives and the emission of toxic substances from cigarettes and provide advice on control". It was considered additional technical expertise would be needed to carry out this work and a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) was therefore established.

On the basis of advice from TAG the Department of Health has commissioned a number of research projects relating to chemical make up of tobacco smoke. Additionally an annual assessment is made of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide yields from brands of cigarettes on the UK market. Reports of these projects can be found on the TAG web pages.

In 2001 the Department of Health initiated a study to gather more detailed information on the constituents of cigarette smoke. This study, known as the "UK Benchmark Study", determined the concentrations of 44 analytes in the smoke of 25 cigarette brands representative of the UK market. The study, undertaken by an independent contract laboratory, was funded by the UK-based member companies of the Tobacco Manufacturers Association (TMA). A full report of the study and all the data obtained can be found on the TMA web-site at www.the-tma.org.uk/benchmark.

Top

copyright: © | updated: 16 November, 2004