Jump to full article: WalesOnline (uk), 2008-08-14
Author: Paul Rowland, Western Mail
Intro: VERY rarely does a study emerge about the frequency of teens smoking without the results pointing to yet another decline. We repeatedly hear that fewer teens are embracing the habit than ever before, and, more broadly, various anti-smoking measures are winning the battle against the addiction.
And yet countless people across the country still encounter, on a daily basis, scenes that draw a direct counterpoint to these published figures.
Crowds of youngsters gathered in doorways with orange embers poking from the hoods of their school coats; adults being accosted to buy cigarettes from shops . . .
So it is refreshing, if depressing, to find a report from Ash Cymru lifting the lid on shameful stories of teenagers smoking up to 200 cigarettes a week.
The sheer size of the figure will seem fanciful to many, but if its shocking scale gives a reality check to any young person who has taken up the habit, or inflicts a new sense of duty on a parent, it will be valuable. . . .
There really seems little more that governments can do. If writing "Smokers die young" on the side of packets of cigarettes and forcing their purchasers to stand in the cold and rain while they inhale their deadly fumes is not enough to get the point across, it would seem that nothing would.
Instead, what is needed for the sake of a healthy future is a seriously large dose of common sense for those still indulging in this anachronistic habit.
It costs the NHS millions of pounds a year, and it'll kill you.
It's as simple as that.
Jump to full article » |