New European anti--smoking campaign

¡¡¡¡The European Commission is launching a new anti-smoking campaign. It comes as the world£§s first ever treaty aimed at dissuading children from smoking and helping adults kick the habit enters into force last week.

¡¡¡¡The European Commission will spend about ninety five million dollars over the next four years trying to prevent children and young adults from smoking. That£§s a big increase on the twenty five million dollars it spent on its last anti-smoking campaign.

¡¡¡¡But it£§s an amount that£§s dwarfed by the multi-billion dollar financial clout of the tobacco industry¢Ÿ even though companies like British-American tobacco say they support efforts to reduce the incidents of youth smoking across Europe.

¡¡¡¡The Commission£§s latest campaign ties in with a global anti-smoking treaty which came into force on last Sunday and which requires that governments take tough measures against the promotion of tobacco. The Commission£§s already spent money on a logo and slogan both of which will be unveiled at the launch of the anti-smoking campaign on Tuesday and which will be followed up by a series of EU wide TV and cinema adverts.

¡¡¡¡The campaign comes on top of existing efforts to curb tobacco use. The Commission is encouraging countries to put picture warnings on cigarette packets which would feature photos of blackened lungs and from July this year tobacco firms will be banned from advertising at sporting events such as formula one car racing.

¡¡¡¡Words and expressions£º

¡¡¡¡to prevent£ºto stop before they start

¡¡¡¡dwarfed£ºmade to look small

¡¡¡¡clout£ºbig influence

¡¡¡¡ties in with£ºhas a close connection to

¡¡¡¡tough measures£ºstrong uncompromising actions

¡¡¡¡unveiled£ºlaunched£¬shown publicly for the first time

¡¡¡¡to curb£ºto reduce

¡¡£ banned from not allowed to