Pretty much everybody apart from hard-right Tory backbencher Philip Davies and groups funded by the tobacco industry support the government's plans on tobacco advertising.
Martin Dockrell is the policy and campaigns manager for Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
Early this morning I had a discussion on the BBC with Tory backbencher Philip Davies. Apparently, because I support the proposed curbs on tobacco marketing I am an extremist who will never be satisfied. Me and the Royal College of Physicians, BMA, Cancer Research UK, 170 other health groups in the Smokefree Action Coalition, the Labour Party, the Lib Dems, the SNP and the Tory front bench. Pretty much everybody apart from Davies and groups funded by the tobacco industry.
The 1997 Labour government made tobacco policy its own. Labour’s “Smoking Kills” white paper put the UK at the forefront of tobacco policy in Europe. However, the burden of smoking related disease falls most heavily on the most disadvantaged and to this day, half the difference in life expectancy between richest and poorest is down to smoking.
Today sees the publication of something we have never seen before – a Tobacco Plan from a Conservative led Government. The tobacco industry’s tactic of lobbying secretly behind retailer front groups has been exposed and appears to have been largely ineffective, so Labour’s legislation to ban cigarette vending machines and tobacco product displays has survived largely intact.
Unlike other areas of policy, the coalition has shown remarkable continuity with the policy of the last Labour government. When the Conservatives gave a free vote on the ban on smoking in public places they set the permitted politicians to listen to the evidence, making tobacco policy a cross party issue.
The coalition even appears to be adopting one of Labour’s most ambitious ideas – a law to get rid of what health secretary Andrew Lansley now calls the “glitzy packaging” of tobacco products. Australia is already set to be the first country to put tobacco in plain packaging from the middle of next year. The government there has been persuaded by academics whose research shows:
• How the tobacco industry uses packaging to make their brands more attractive to young people;
• How colour coding packs in red, gold and silver misleads smokers into thinking some cigarettes are less harmful or addictive than others;
• How plain packaging makes health warnings more effective.
New research published here for the first time shows there is already widespread support for plain packaging and as the public comes to understand the evidence better, support is set to grow.
When respondents were asked if they would support plain packaging “if there was evidence that plain packs were less likely to give the false impression that one type of cigarette is safer than another”, 64% said they would support the measure; when asked “if there were evidence that it improved the effectiveness of health warnings”, support rose to 75%; and if there were evidence that it made cigarettes less attractive to young people the proportion supporting rose to 80%.
Even smokers are more supportive “if” there is evidence that plain packs would be effective, particularly in making cigarettes less attractive to young people. Under these conditions 64% of daily smokers would support the introduction of plain packaging.
There are clear parallels with the rise in support for the ban on smoking in pubs and clubs. Support stood at a little over 50% in 2004 but according to a report by the Royal College of Physicians, as the public came to understand the evidence better, by 2007 – when the law was implemented – support had grown to more than 75 per cent.
Since implementation, as people have seen the benefits for themselves support has risen to 80%, rising fastest among smokers.
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26 Responses to “Government is right to take action on tobacco packaging”
Dennis Ager
About 79% of people in this country do not smoke because they recognise what harm it has on their health and how unattractive a habit it is and about 75% of those that do smoke, want to quit.
The measures announced by the Government today are a huge step in the right direction to driving down smoking rates further, and improving the health of all.
Retailers that sell tobacco need not fear: they will still be able to sell tobacco, but will not be allowed to have it openly on display. In Ireland, a number of retailers have reported a rise in profits as they have been able to use the space taken up by tobacco displays to advertise more profitable products.
One day in the not too distant future, we will all be grateful for these measures (as we have been with smokefree legislation) and future generations of children will wonder why smoking and tobacco displays were ever allowed.
Roll on plain packaging and well done to the Government for listening to the support in favour of these measures
Left Off
Welcome to Andy Mayer from the right wing “Liberal Vision” website. For those who don’t know, Liberal Vision organised a meeting on tobacco smuggling but forgot to mention funding from the tobacco manufacturers association.
I guess the answers would be:
– the suggestion that such measures are expensive and marginal in respect of reducing smoking?
THESE INTERVENTIONS ARE VERY LOW COST TO ALL BUT THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY. THE ASSOCIATION OF CONVENIENCE STORES SAY THE IRISH DISPLAY BAN COST ONLY £300 FOR SMALL SHOPS. LARGE SHOPS GOT THE NEW UNITS FREE FROM THE TOBACCO COMPANIES.
– that by making legal tobacco distribution as opaque as illegal tobacco, they are a boon to illicit trade and the organised crime syndicates behind it?
IN IRELAND THERE WAS NO CHANGE IN TREND ON DUTY PAID TOBACCO SALES. THE FALL WAS EXACTLY IN LINE WITH THE 10 YEAR AVERAGE. IN TRUTH IT IS ANTI SMUGGLING ENFORCEMENT THAT STOPS SMUGGLING. IN CANADA (WHERE THEY HAVE BANNED TOBACCO DISPLAYS) ENFORCEMENT HAS DRIVEN DOWN SMUGGLING SO MUCH THAT THE PHILIP MORRIS SAY THEIR (LEGAL) SALES ARE UP 20%
– that by incentivising smokers to break the law you increase their health risks through consumption of more toxic product, particularly low-income smokers?
THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY LIKE TO MAKE OUT THAT THEIR CIGARETTES ARE SOMEHOW LESS DEADLY THAN SMUGGLED CIGARETTES. THERE IS NO EVIDENCE ON THIS AT ALL. HALF OF LIFE LONG SMOKERS OF LEGAL CIGARETTES DIE FROM SMOKING RELATED ILLNESS.
– that shopkeepers losing revenue from this suggestion will be more tempted to work with the gangs?
AGAIN. THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT POINT OF SALE DISPLAYS HAVE ANY IMPACT ON SMUGGLING AT ALL.
– that meeting the cost of policing the illegal trade you unintentionally encourage, is not helped by the massive loss of tax revenue implicit in pushing the trade underground?
ACCORDING TO THE POLICY EXCHANGE (NOT FAMED FOR SUPPORT OF LABOUR POLICY) SMOKING COSTS THE UK £13 BILLION BUT EARNS LESS THAN £10 BILLION IN REVENUE.
The tobacco industry makes us poorer and sicker and it is the poorest who suffer most.
Mr. Sensible
i think it is good that for once Lansley hasn’t caved in to retailers ETC on public health.
Victoria B
Well done to the Government for listening to clinicians and the public and taking such a rational, simple step – here’s hoping it will eventually lead to extra protection for kids getting ill inhaling their parents smoke.
Thanks ASH for all of your campaigning!
Charles
No child has started smoking by buying their first packet of cigarettes from a shop because
1. It is illegal for under 18s to buy them from shops.
2. Children get their first cigarettes from their friends or nick them from their parents.