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Irish Anti-Tobacco Initiatives Create More Smokers

Published: 2010-12-22    Views:104 reads

More Irish people are smoking now than before the ban on smoking in public places was introduced six years ago, according to a story in the Irish Times.

The Minister of State for Health,　ine Brady, told the Dáil that currently 29 per cent of the population smoked despite the ban, the abolition of packs of fewer than 20 cigarettes, the ending of in-store displays and advertising, and the retail price of cigarettes being, at € 8.55 a pack, "the highest in the world".

The Fine Gael health spokesman, Dr. James Reilly, said the figure of 29 per cent was 2 percentage points higher than it was before the ban was introduced in 2004.

"Tobacco kills more people in Ireland than road accidents, suicide, drugs, farm accidents and Aids combined," he said, referring to figures from the Irish Cancer Society. "It causes 30 per cent of all cancers, including 95 per cent of all lung cancers."

He criticised the minister for failing to implement legislation passed 18 months ago to "print pictorial warnings on cigarette packets to help smokers visualise tobacco-related illnesses".

Brady said there was a legal difficulty with the warnings, which had not yet been resolved.

It was not stated whether or not the debate in the Dáil had considered whether pictorial warnings might prove to be just as ineffective as all of the other initiatives, which were no doubt presented as the way forward when they were brought in.

Source from: Tobacco Reporter
http://act.tobaccochina.net/englishnew/content.aspx?id=45241