front of them

 

Children are contracting serious illnesses because of their parents smoking at home, says the government's chief medical officer, who has warned adults not to light up in front of their sons and daughters.

 

In an interview with The Observer, Sir Liam Donaldson, Britain's most senior doctor, pledged that there would be a further sustained crackdown on smoking after the ban comes into force in England next Sunday.

 

He promised renewed public health advertising campaigns to try to educate parents who smoke. 'We will strengthen and make regular the message to parents about the risks to their children of smoking. This is something we will need to constantly remind them about.

 

'The dangers of parents smoking in front of their children are increased risk of respiratory diseases, bronchitis, middle ear infections, asthma attacks in children that are prone to asthma and increased risk to babies if there is a pregnant person in the household.

'While the number of parents who smoke is falling, children's exposure to parental smoke remains "a problem area", he said.

 

Future plans to restrict smoking include

 

· Removing cigarettes from public display;

 

· Putting graphic picture warnings on cigarette packets showing the health effects of smoking, including blocked arteries, rotten teeth and gangrene;

 

· Outlawing the sale of packets of 10 cigarettes to deter consumption, especially among children;

 

· Reducing the number of cigarettes that Britons can bring into the country from inside the EU from 3,200 to 200.

 

The number of Britons who smoke has fallen to 24 per cent and ministers hope going smoke-free will over time bring about another 4 or 5 per cent drop. 'But if we want to go further we have got to reinforce all these other tobacco measures and denormalise smoking completely,' said Donaldson.

 

'The first of July is not when action stops; it's a launchpad from which we can make further massive strides. I hope people will be behind some of the slightly controversial measures.'

tbh its getting abit silly, although i dont think any careing responsable parent should smoke infront of their kids.

:o bring this in now :(

it is a shame that parents need telling this <_<

The vast majority of sensible parents are very careful not to smoke in front of their kids, it's only the minority of Chav scum that are doing this in all likelihood (ie, the sort of maggots who should never even be allowed to have kids in the first fukkin' place.....).

 

As for the other plans -

 

Removing cigarettes from public display - Seriously, what will this achieve...? Waste of time...

 

Putting graphic picture warnings on cigarette packets showing the health effects of smoking, including blocked arteries, rotten teeth and gangrene - Oh come on... This is just plain ridiculous.. Well, I suppose now we know the reasons for removing ciggies from public display.... :lol:

 

Outlawing the sale of packets of 10 cigarettes to deter consumption, especially among children - Again, what will this actually achieve...? Kids cant buy packs of 10s or 20s... So people will be forced to by a pack of 20s when all they might want is a pack of 10s...? More sneaky "stealth taxes" Mr Brown....? <_<

 

Reducing the number of cigarettes that Britons can bring into the country from inside the EU from 3,200 to 200 - I would perhaps support this if I wasn't convinced that it's purely a move by the Govt to ensure they get as much tax revenue from UK bought cigarettes as possible...

I like the idea ... one of my friends at school was warned he had to give up smoking or it could become dangerous, but he'd never smoked in his life ... it was all passive.

 

But, as Scott points out, it's impossible to enforce.

Reducing the number of cigarettes that Britons can bring into the country from inside the EU from 3,200 to 200 - I would perhaps support this if I wasn't convinced that it's purely a move by the Govt to ensure they get as much tax revenue from UK bought cigarettes as possible...

 

Don't know much about this specifically but the greater point leaves me conflicted: Should the government be able to overtax things such as cigarettes in an effort to force a broad social change? While I am usually a nazi for civil liberties... let's be honest, getting people off cigarettes would save BILLIONS in public health costs and save tens of thousands of lives each year. This is undemocratic of me, but maybe people are too stupid to know what's good for them.

 

Only an individual on the fringest of fringes would dismiss seat belt-enforcement laws. Are they really all that different?

actually, it wouldnt exactly save lives, but just delay the inevitable!

let's be honest, getting people off cigarettes would save BILLIONS in public health costs and save tens of thousands of lives each year.

 

I dunno tbh, the taxes raised by cigarettes each year probably more than cover the public health costs..... Why doesn't the Govt just go the whole hog and just do an outright ban if this was not the case......? Answer, they like the money it raises too much, the economy would, in all likelihood, take a dump.... It's sort of in Human Nature to do stupid sh!t though Consie, I dont think we'll ever change that..... :lol: