News

Protecting kids from smoking

Calls are being made to 'make smoking history' for children across the north east. Over 80 delegates from across the region gathered at St James' Park in Newcastle, where leading tobacco experts presented evidence to support further measures to protect children from the harmful effects of tobacco. The event marked the regional launch of the Government's National Tobacco Strategy consultation.
Those attending the event were told the results from a nationwide public opinion survey showed that 65 per cent of those questionned supported a ban on selling cigarettes from vending machines, 60 per cent called for the price of cigarettes to increase beyond that of inflations, and 59 per cent were in favour of banning the display of tobacco products.
Director of Fresh, Smoke Free North East, Ailsa Rutter, said: "It is up to us to ensure we respond to the government's consultation and provide our children with the future they deserve, and make smoking history for our children."

Source: News Guardian, 09 July 2008

NZ: Cigarette flavouring outrages anti-smoking group

Anti-smoking campaigners are fighting to ban cigarette flavouring which could make the nicotine habit more tempting for youngsters. The product comes in a range of fruit flavours and is poured on tobacco, masking the taste of smoke and raising fears it could make the habit easier to swallow. With flavours like silly strawberry, punched up pineapple and spiffy spearmint, anti-smoke campaigners say the tobacco additives are the latest bid by the tobacco companies to lure young people into addiction.
"Often with their first cigarette they find the flavour is extremely harsh so anything that is adding flavour to that or making it less disgusting is a serious concern," says Ben Youdan of ASH (Action on Smoking and Health). It is illegal to sell flavoured cigarettes, but ASH believes tobacco companies have found a loophole by encouraging the separate sale of fruit flavoured additives. The products are banned in South Australia and the ministry of Health here is looking at doing the same.
"We will have to move either to ban these products or to make sure they are not widely sold across New Zealand - particularly to youth where they are clearly targeted," says Associate Health Minister Damien O'Conner. Liquorice, banana, strawberry and other flavoured cigarette papers have been in stores for years but it seems they too are likely to be taken off the shelves. 3 News spoke with both big tobacco companies today. Phillp Morris said they do not supply the product and would support a government ban while British American Tobacco did not reply.

Source: 3news.co.nz, 08 July 2008

Q and A: Martin Dockrell on the BMA recommendations for the portrayal of smoking to be taken into account when classifying films

Martin Dockrell is campaigns manager for Action on Smoking and Health. We [The Scotsman] spoke to him about the British Medical Association (BMA) recommendations for the portrayal of smoking to be taken into account when classifying films.

What else can be done to stop young people seeing smoking as cool?
I think a much better recommendation from the BMA is to sell cigarettes in plain packets. This gets rid of the red and silver and gold packaging but also gets rid of the "mild" and "light" brands, which is like saying you are just as dead whether you shoot yourself with five bullets or six bullets.
What do you think of media portrayals of smoking in general?
Smoking is not portrayed in a very realistic way in the movies what you tend to get is depictions of smokers being healthy and wealthy when the truth is that smokers tend to be in bad health and be economically poor. Although you often see actors smoking on the screen, you rarely see the consequences. So while you see someone stub out a cigarette, you do not see them having a heart attack or dying of cancer.
Do we need to introduce legislation to stop magazines and newspapers publishing pictures of celebrities smoking cigarettes?
No, we just need people to act responsibly. We know that images of celebrities smoking encourages the kids who are fans of that person to take up the habit. So editors need to be aware that they are perpetuating the "James Dean effect".
Why is smoking seen as glamorous when it is a filthy habit that can kill?
Because the tobacco industry has invested a huge amount of money in making it look cool. They have paid popular actors to endorse cigarettes when they do not even smoke.
Isn't reclassifying films that portray smoking just another form of censorship?
Making smoking glamorous is misleading people about a public-safety issue. I would censor that.

Source: The Scotsman, 07 July 2008

Doctors fume at glamorisation of smoking in films

Film stars who smoke on screen should attract the attention of the censor in the same way as they would if they were engaged in extreme sex or violence, doctors say.Films that show smoking in a way that "condones, encourages or glamorises" the activity should be considered for reclassification restricting them to an older audience, the British Medical Association said. The association called yesterday for new curbs on the promotion of smoking in the media and said the Government should set a target to make England smoke-free by 2035.
More than one in five adults smokes and most start before they are 18 when they are most vulnerable to images that "increase the allure of the habit", the BMA said in a report from its board of science. The portrayal of smoking in films declined from 1950 to 1990, but has since increased. The poster for the 1994 movie Pulp Fiction, showing a sultry Uma Thurman smoking, was a gift to the tobacco industry and an example of the sort of image the BMA wants to outlaw. In the US, smoking has increased in films targeted at teenagers since 2002, the report says.
The BMA says films showing smoking in a positive light should also be preceded by an anti-smoking advert. A similar strategy to curb the promotion of cigarettes on television led to the voluntary withdrawal of tobacco advertising in the 1970s. Cigarettes should be banned from sale in vending machines, removed from display in shops and supermarkets and presented in plain packaging, the report says. The UK has one of the most comprehensive tobacco control policies in Europe with a ban on smoking in public places, an advertising ban, regular tax increases, an increase in the minimum age for buying cigarettes (from 16 to 18) and health warnings on packets. But further efforts to reduce the appeal of smoking to the young are essential to achieve the goal of eliminating it, the BMA says.

Source: The Independent, 07 July 2008 Also reported in The GuardianThe TimesBBC News