It's World No Tobacco Day (sic) on Saturday.
This WHO organised event normally gets a lukewarm reception in Britain where we have enough anti-smoking promotions of our own, notably No Smoking Day, Stoptober and New Year's Day.
This year however it could be different and I wonder if the proximity of World No Tobacco Day to the Queen's Speech (which may or may not include plain packaging) and the anticipated announcement of the government consultation on plain pack regulations may have focussed one or two minds.
ASH, for example, has just released the results of yet another YouGov poll. I haven't seen the national results yet but I've seen the press release issued by Fresh (formerly Smokefree North East) and the UK version will be in a very similar vein, I'm sure.
Here's a taste:
Tobacco companies should not be able to influence health policy and should declare what they spend on promotion and lobbying government - that is the view of the North East public in new figures released for World No Tobacco Day (May 31).
The findings from YouGov show most adults do not trust the tobacco industry and believe public health policies should be protected from the influence of multinational tobacco corporations ...
The independent 2014 SmokefreeYouGov poll, commissioned by Action on Smoking and Health found:
– Nearly half (43%) of North East adults think the government’s activities to limit smoking are not doing enough
– Only 9% of North East adults agree or strongly agree that the tobacco industry can be trusted to tell the truth.
– 77% of North East adults support the idea that government health policy should be protected from the influence of the tobacco industry.
– 78% of North East adults agree or strongly agree that tobacco companies should be required to disclose the amount spent on lobbying politicians, front groups and promoting their products
The Northumberland Echo has the story here: North-East public 'distrustful' of tobacco industry. It includes a quote from me.
I'll be interested to see how much coverage the poll gets. Disparaging the tobacco industry is hardly news these days.
I'm curious to see whether it gets overshadowed by a statement from the first of a two-part documentary on smoking that goes out on BBC2 tomorrow night.
The BBC is promoting the programme as hard as it can and the comment (concerning a substantial increase in the price of cigarettes) has excited a number of local radio stations.
Cynics might conclude it's part of a well choreographed attack on tobacco days before the Queen's Speech and the start of the consultation.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist, as you know, but I'll have more to say about this in the morning.