Mersey campaign group: New smoking laws need to go further

Oct 1 2007 by Alan Weston, Liverpool Daily Post

A LIVERPOOL anti-tobacco youth group warned that the latest measures to stop young people buying tobacco did not go far enough.

New legislation which came into force today makes it illegal to sell tobacco to anyone in England and Wales under the age of 18.

But D-MYST (Direct Movement by the Youth SmokeFree Team), the SmokeFree Liverpool youth group, stressed that, although this was a positive step towards reducing the number of young people who smoke, other measures still needed to be put in place to tackle the problem.

D-MYST member Ailene Whitehead, 16, said: “This increase in the age limit is great and it will hopefully stop cigarettes being available so easily to young people.

“But we know that there are other things like smoking in the media which influence young people to start smoking or continue, which are still a problem.

“This is why our Toxic Movies campaign, which aims to remove smoking and tobacco from one area of the media, films, is so important, to further reduce the amount of young people who smoke.”

The latest move follows on from all enclosed public places going smoke-free from July 1, and the recent government announcement that cigarette packets will carry picture health warnings from next year.

An outdoor advertising campaign was launched last week as part of an awareness campaign over the past four months to ensure that both retailers and teenagers were fully aware of the tobacco age of sale increase.

Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo said: “We are determined to reduce the number of young people who smoke.

“Raising the legal age of sale to 18 will make it easier for retailers to spot under-age smokers and lead to less young people becoming addicted to nicotine and continuing to smoke into adulthood. Research shows that, the younger people start, the more likely they are to become life-long smokers and die early.

“This change in law highlights our commitment to protect our children and will potentially save thousands of lives and others will be spared the misery of watching family and friends die prematurely from smoke-related illnesses.”

The Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, said: “I welcome the raising of the legal age for buying tobacco to 18 years.

“This will result in fewer young people becoming addicted to nicotine, which could ultimately result in early death from cancer and other smoking-related illnesses.

“The initiative is another important step in helping to prevent people from taking up smoking in the first place, and in the longer-term will help to reduce the burden that smoking causes in our country.”

alanweston