RCP marks 50th anniversary of first 'Smoking and health' report
Tuesday, March 6, 2012 at 9:01 Hold the front page.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley will be among the speakers at a conference hosted by the Royal College of Physicians in London today to mark the 50th anniversary of the RCP's first 'Smoking and health' report.
Forest's response to this milestone?
"The authors of the first report on smoking and health were right to draw attention to the risks associated with smoking. Regrettably, since 1962 education has been replaced by coercion and smokers are now treated like lepers and vilified for their habit.
"Intolerance and scaremongering have replaced legitimate consumer information and common sense has given way to illiberal legislation designed to force people to give up a legal product.
"Adults have a right to make informed choices about smoking, eating and drinking. The 50th anniversary of the RCP report is an opportunity to remind politicians of their responsibilities in a liberal democratic society."
The Daily Mail has the story here.
See also: Smoking To Cost UK '100m Years Of Life' In A Generation (Huffington Post)
Reader Comments (7)
I saw this in the guardian - and read the article looking for any dissenting comments, perhaps something from yourself. Nothing, needless to say. When I trained as a journalist, I was always told to get all sides of the story.
Saw it on BBC Breakfast this morning in Blackpool.
Isn't it about time that governments reaquainted themselves with the meaning of the word DEMOCRACY?
Their nannying, imho, is doing far more harm to people than any amount of smoking, 1st, 2nd or 3rd hand!
As you say, Simon, leave us to make informed decisions for ourselves, relevant to our own lifestyle, likes, needs and wants instead of putting so much stress and pressure on us that we end up killing ourselves or dying of government induced illnesses and diseases!
We ALL DIE - FACT! Let us do it in our own way, where possible!
I read an excellent article by Quentin Letts in the paper this morning, where he talks about an organisation called EHRC - not to be confused with ECHR. We all know that ECHR stands for European Court of Human Rights, whereas EHRC stands for Equality and Human Rights Commission.
We, the taxpayer, fund both these organisations in one way or another, and both organisations contain the words "Human Rights and Equality" in their titles - but as we all know, smokers are denied their Human Rights - Smokers are also denied the right to be treated as equal!
As Simon states above, "Intolerance and scaremongering have replaced legitimate consumer information and common sense has given way to illiberal legislation designed to force people to give up a legal product"
If any other group of people were treated in such an intolerant manner as smokers are, there would be uproar - there would be demands for a public enquiry - yet as we all know this type of intolerance has been going on for over three years now, and growing in strength on a daily basis.
Not only are smokers being treated in an intolerant manner but probably more importantly, they are being bullied and intimidated. Why have we got groups such as EHRC and ECHR who are supposed to be standing up for our (everyone's) human rights, when one particular group, i.e. "smokers" are being denied all their rights?
Simon also states (above) "Adults have a right to make informed choices about smoking, eating and drinking". Of course we do, so how are these people able to break and bend the rules to suit their particular political agenda and deny us our rights?
Inform? - Yes! Bully and cajole? - No!
True - any law that demanded one group change their legal lifestyle or be denied entry to not only public areas but private areas where the property owner may actually want you to be (i.e pubs) wouldn't even get through Parliament; in fact it would probably end the career of anyone who proposed it. Imagine a law saying that gays had to stop being gay or Muslims had to renounce their God, or else they would be forced to stand outside and be denied entry to public buildings, employment, medical services or fostering rights!!
It would be, quite rightly, denounced as the most monstrous form of fascism. Yet with smokers it doesn't seem to register. Funny that.
My maths is pretty lousy...so can anyone tell me how smoking can cost a '100m years of life' in the UK in a single generation?
Just what the hell does that mean...how on earth do you fit 100m years in a single generation - what kind of ludicrous crap is this!
Somebody just invented Mr Stupid Week!
It's simple really John - '100m years of life' in the UK in a single generation is quite easy to calculate - you just need to take the first year of every new-born baby's life and multiply it by 6.1m over a period of every 3 months per adult population in Northern Ireland during the rainy season and add that to an unquantifying figure of multi national progressive functions and there you have it - simple!
Ah - thanks Peter.