You’ve probably seen Public Health England’s Quit Smoking Campaign which took over the nation in December – large billboards warning smokers that roll-ups can be equally as harmful to their health as conventional cigarettes, featuring horrific and disturbing images of rotting internal organs amongst the components of the cigarette. Fast forward one month and the government seem to have taken note of the adverts, and are targeting cigarette addiction once again. A recent study by ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) found that 10 million people, or 1/6 of the UK population, are smokers. A new measure, forcing all cigarette manufacturers to ditch branding and use plain packaging, is to go to a free vote with MPs in the coming months.
The powers of cigarette companies has been steadily stripped over the years since the damaging effects of smoking have come to light, denying them advertising rights, the ability to sponsor sporting events previously dominated by leading cigarette brands, and heavily publicising campaigns like ‘Stoptober’ to help consumers kick their habit. The biggest impact resulting from legislation to discourage smoking was back in 2007 with the smoking ban, which is widely considered to have been a positive change – numbers of heart attacks and premature births has fallen since the change came into place, and seems to be a direct result of the legislation. Despite public approval of previous smoking legislation at least 100 Conservative MPs are planning on voting against the latest motion, which may be due to the inconclusive evidence of how similar laws have affected Australia’s smoking figures.