Public health: rotten to the core
Monday, December 29, 2014 at 7:11 Public Health England, which is funding a £500,000 Dry January ad campaign by Alcohol Concern, is also targetting smokers.
The government body, whose head of tobacco control is Martin Dockrell, formerly of ASH, is today launching a new anti-smoking campaign.
It's called 'Stop the rot' and the press release reads:
Stop the rot: New campaign highlights how cigarettes 'rot' the body from the inside
Research reveals that poisons in tobacco smoke break down the body's key systems, damaging bones, muscles, brain, teeth and eyesSmokers turning to roll-ups, wrongly convinced they are less harmful New anti-smoking campaign shows a roll-up full of rotting tissue to highlight the dangers.
Today, Public Health England launches a powerful new campaign to highlight how smoking damages the body and causes a slow and steady decline in a process akin to rotting. The campaign launches as a new expert review commissioned by Public Health England highlights the multiple impacts that toxic ingredients in cigarettes can have on your body.
There follows a long list of how smoking allegedly damages bones and muscles, causes injuries to heal more slowly and reduces the impact of treatment. According to PHE it also affects the brain and teeth, damages sight and increases the risk of age-related cataracts.
Hand rolled tobacco (which is favoured by an increasing number of smokers as a direct result of the government's tobacco taxation policy) is singled out for special attention:
The campaign also tackles common misconceptions around hand-rolled tobacco, or roll-ups. Use of roll-ups has increased significantly. In 1990, 18% of male smokers and 2% of female smokers said they smoked mainly hand-rolled cigarettes but by 2013 this had risen to 40% for men and 23% for women. New figures show that half of smokers (49%) who only smoke roll-ups wrongly believe they are less harmful than manufactured cigarettes. In fact, hand-rolled cigarettes are at least as hazardous as any other type of cigarette.
Needless to say there's a comment from our old friend Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer for England and Wales:
"Whilst many smokers know the damage cigarettes do to their hearts and lungs, they are much less likely to be aware of how harmful smoking is to the body - essentially 'rotting' it from the inside out, and roll-ups are no exception.
According to PHE:
Digital and print billboards will feature a roll-up cigarette full of decaying tissue, whilst an online viral will see a father casually rolling up a cigarette formed of rotting human flesh - all bringing to life the fact that: 'every cigarette rots you from the inside out'. This will be joined by the 'Mutations' and 'Toxic Cycle' adverts used in previous campaigns. These campaigns have helped smoking rates in England fall to an all time low this year of 18.4% and Public Health England will be continuing to help any smoker wishing to make a quit attempt in 2015 with a range of free and proven support tools.
Believe it or not that's an edited version of a press release that seems to pride itself on hyperbole.
I tried to keep Forest's response as short as possible:
Forest slams PHE's "poisonous" anti-smoking campaign
The smokers' group Forest has described Public Health England's new anti-smoking campaign as "rotten", "poisonous" and an "abuse of public money".
According to PHE, "research reveals that poisons in tobacco smoke break down the body's key systems, damaging bones, muscles, brain, teeth and eyes".
Simon Clark, director of Forest, said: "There can't be a sane adult in the United Kingdom who isn't well aware of the health risks of smoking.
"What's really poisonous is the way public health campaigners are constantly trying to scare and harass people with exaggerated claims and dubious statistics.
"Campaigns like this are an abuse of public money. Education has been replaced by shrill scaremongering that is often counter-productive because it's human nature to switch off when you're being nagged or shouted at on an almost daily basis.
"This is real life not a Hammer Horror film. If Public Health England wants to be effective they should engage directly with consumers, not try to scare them with rotten campaigns such as this."
I'll keep an eye on media coverage but as I write I have a feeling that warning fatigue may have set in.
One thing's for sure. What we've seen since Christmas is a concerted, coordinated campaign on several fronts - food, drink and now tobacco.
And the target? You and me (aka the consumer).
Increasingly bodies such as PHE will stop at nothing until smoking and even drinking are denormalised.
Public health, rotten to the core.
Update: The BBC has the story here (Smoking rot highlighted in campaign). The original report had no balancing comment, despite the fact that we sent them our press release yesterday morning. I have just spoken to the news desk and it should be updated shortly.
The Mail also has a report here (with a quote from Forest):
Finally (and somewhat surprisingly), the Independent highlights our reaction in its headline here:
Anti-smoking adverts accused of 'scaremongering'
Update: The BBC has now updated its report to include a brief comment from me. Pity we had to phone their news desk and point out how one-sided the original report was.
Reader Comments (16)
The Daily express has a very good article Simon,
http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/leo-mckinstry/549146/Eat-drink-and-be-merry-Not-if-the-health-puritans-have-their-way
with comments
This is absolute rubbish. With the references to the lie that smoking means bodies don't heal properly after operations or injury it's clear the anti-smoker industry is brainwashing the public to accept exclusion of smokers from the NHS.
Cue Devon NHS's future new attempt to discriminate against smokers, once the antis soften up the public to accept it and expand it to all health trusts. Next time they'll get this policy through. All they ever need is time, lots of public money, bigots, and the gullible.
"There can't be a sane adult in the United Kingdom who isn't well aware of the health risks of smoking.
Me! Me! I don't believe a word of it any more!
Hard working families (with apologies for use of that description) will be harmed by this campaign. The father or mother, maybe at full stretch to make ends meet, might smoke a few cigarettes to help get through the day or week. Maybe they now will worry for themselves and for each other. Tension could follow: carping, nagging criticism, rows. Any children seeing the publicity will think their parents are going to die at any minute.That will increase the pressure on the parents Do these people really want to destroy the harmony and balance of families where the adults may live another 30, 40 or 50 years, regardless of whether someone in the family smokes? That doesn't seem to be in line with the principle of doing no harm.
The BBC has allowed people to comment and for the umpteenth time, the purveyors of poisonous hyperbola have received a less than warm reception from an audience that cannot be described as reactionary.
I am increasingly convinced that the majority of the population is utterly sick of their bullying, their junk science and their patronising campaigns. The only supporters of this type of thing appear to be those in the third sector whose cosy lifestyles depend on it, far left extremist medics (mostly non-practising) and the increasingly despised politicians who currently infest Westminster.
Their numbers are few indeed.
Poisonous political meddlers of the anti -smoking lie are not fit for government because of the misuse of tax .
Gotta agree Frank. The boy who cried wolf comes to mind. They've become so insane that all I used to think was harmful about smoking is now what I realise is only smokerphobia from wealthy officials paid too much to promote hate campaigns and social exclusion of people they would rather weren't in the world at all.
This is just a silly campaign. If smoking affected all of the body's organs, how is it that we've had all those news stories about non-smokers receiving deceased smokers' lungs etc? Surely if each and every organ was a mass of rotting flesh around the edges, no smokers' organs of any kind would ever be used for transplant? So it doesn't take more than a moment's pondering to realise that there is - shall we say - just a tad of exaggeration going on here.
I strongly suspect that this campaign won't make a jot of difference because it's so unrealistic. It's obvious what they are trying to do, as they proudly proclaim in respect of the hoped-for "Pavlovian response," (interesting terminology, which in and of itself speaks volumes about how they regard the viewing public) but I don't think it'll work because it's so unrealistic that it won't "ring true." The experience of rolling a cigarette is so different from this portrayal that I don't think the requisite "association" will be easily made by anyone.
I do wish they'd stop wasting our money trying to show how darned clever they are when they clearly aren't anywhere near as clever as they think! Why can't they spend the cash filling in potholes or something useful like that .... ?
"Me! Me! I don't believe a word of it any more!" -FD
I, too, am becoming daily more skeptical of the claims of the Third Reich Pseudo-science propagandists and even Mrs Blocked Dwarf ,an antismoker Xian zealot of the 'smoking = demonic possession' variety, is beginning to question some of the 'smoking causes plague/ebola/ingrown toeneails' style mouthings of the fASHists.
I don't believe any of it either any more. I have smoked for 54 years. My skin is excellent, I am a very quick healer and sailed through the two major operations I have had with no problems despite the physiotherapists dire predictions. One aunt who will be 90 in February smoked since she was 10 and is fine. On the other hand my mother, a never smoker or drinker and taught weight training died after strokes at 72. her other sister, also never smoker has heart problems among other illnesses. I am sick to death of the lot of them, just leave me alone.
The BBC? One sided? Who'da thought it!
I trust that you have a complaint already on the way to Advertising Standards signed by about 4,000 Forest supporters? If not, then I would readily append my signature to such a complaint.
Grounds of complaint:
1. The advert shows how to roll a cigarette which will instruct children.
2. The advert shows a person enjoying tobacco, which promotes tobacco.
3. The ad shows a person smoking in a playground, which promotes the idea of smoking in places where children are present.
4. The ad is factually incorrect - the rotting flesh ought to have been dried and shredded before any attempt to roll it into a cigarette was attempted. The shredding should have been not more that 1 millimetre in width, if it is to truly depict rolling tobacco.
5. The depiction of the act of smoking the rolled cigarette is impossible since it would be impossible to light such a cigarette due to the dampness of the rotting flesh.
6. The advert glamorises cannibalism.
Need I go further?
Simon.
For the life of me, I cannot understand.
Surely, Forest has some hundreds or even thousands of followers? Some time ago, I tried, at the Bolton Smokers Club, to create a 'Constituency Group', by which I mean at least one person per constituency in the UK. It was not successful, but, there again, it was too ambitious. Thinking back, despite the over-ambitiousness, about 50 persons in different constituencies was not a bad result for a tiny blog. After all, there are only 650-iish constituencies altogether.
Is it not worth your while to build up such a group? How can politicians be held to account if they are never questioned by individual constituents?
I would fully understand if you do not publish this post. In fact, I would suggest not publishing it. It is too important (whether you believe it or not).
But I would appreciate a direct response by email.
"A father casually rolling up a cigarette ." Not just anyone but a father. A thinly disguised reference to the old 'think of the children' chestnut I think.
I am unable to take in this abosolute EU Directive which has been swallowed wholeheartedly by our cowardly pathetic traitorous government. Mind you the MPs are on a two day week now as they have nothing to do apparently. Nice work for 65k plus a year.Get the revolution and kick the lot of them in the bins where they belong.
And oh yes. Do you think any politicians are bothered about you and me ? Are they heck!!! Far too busy lining pockets with false promisies to the gullible. Ex tory.