Revised guidelines on preoperative autologous blood donation.

advertising." When the problem is so serious and the benefit of banning promotion so clear we are inevitably left to wonder what it is that stops Mrs Bottomley from acting. Natural civil service inertia, a libertarian distaste for advertising bans, and some economic anxiety may have marginal importance, but direct political pressure from the tobacco industry and those who benefit from advertising is likely to be much more important. The tobacco industry contributes generously to the Conservative party's funds; some members of parliament are consultants to the industry or to advertisers; and in the last election the tobacco industry made many advertising hoardings available to the Conservative party at very short notice. A debt may have to be repaid. Mrs Bottomley could do a great deal for the health of Europeans and to restore her credibility by voting next week for the directive to ban tobacco promotion. If she doesn't she is literally making murder respectable.