Immediate: Thursday 26th July 2001
Decline in youthsmoking stalls: government to blame for go-slow on tobacco policy
ASHsaid it was disappointed that the decline in youth smoking observed since 1996appears to have stalled after 1999, but blamed the government for dragging itsfeet on tobacco policy. Clive Bates, Director of ASH said:
“Teenage smoking is a slow-burning health tragedy -many of these youngsters will be the cancer and heart patients of the future,and as their nicotine addiction sets in, they'll find it harder to shake offsmoking when they start to get worried about their health and want to quit.
“Many think they are immortal or will quit when theyare a bit older, but the harsh truth is that teenagers greatly over-estimatethe likelihood that they will manage to break the addiction, and about half ofall fifteen year old smokers go on to smoke for life.
Despitehaving a White Paper on smoking in December 1998, the government has been slowto implement its measures - including the ban on tobacco advertising andmeasures to reduce smoking in public places. Clive Bates of ASH stated the obvious:
“If the government doesn't actually implement themeasures it has announced, then it isn't going to meet its targets that theyare supposed to deliver for reducing smoking either among teenagers or adults.
“How can they justify delaying the ban on tobaccoadvertising by leaving it out of the Queen's speech, when they announced it inthe 1997 Labour manifesto? Labour mightas well be delivering kids to the doors of the tobacco companies. Tony Blair either doesn't care or doesn'tunderstand that tobacco advertising is the recruiting sergeant for the cigarettecompanies.
“The only credible way to persuade kids not to smokeis for them to see an adult world in which smoking has become marginal. As well delaying the tobacco advertising ban,the government has blocked action on smoking in public places and at work, sosmoking still looks like a normal part of adult life, and therefore animportant part of the world into which they are entering.
ASHcalled on the government to relaunch its tobacco policy with a report onprogress to date and a new document setting out its policy for the next fewyears.
Contacts:Clive Bates:020 7739 5902 (office) 077 6879 1237 (mobile) (ISDN available)
