Smoking Amongst Children Reaches Alarming Levels

With the appalling statistic that 6% of children aged 11-15 are regular smokers in the UK, government bodies, charities, and health professionals along with some NHS primary care trusts; are to start putting real effort into tackling this major problem.

In Liverpool, where the Smoke Free cities campaign really started, which then led to national legislation around banning smoking in work places, work has already begun in tackling one of the courses of children smoking - cigarette promotion in films. The city has previously targeted the issue of the effects of smoking on children with its Smoke Free Kids campaign.

The SmokeFree Kids campaign from SmokeFree Liverpool, is backed by the world-famous Alder Hey Children's Hospital, and by Everton and Liverpool football clubs, it is designed to bring home the message that smoking around young people can cause serious health problems.

In addition the British Heart Foundation has set up a campaign to ban cigarette vending machines, another source of easy access to cigarettes that children may come across. Statistics show that More than 1 in 6 children and young people in England who are regular smokers usually buy their cigarettes from vending machines.

The simple fact is that smoking-related illnesses are responsible for the deaths of around 114,000 people
every year according to Action on Smoking and Health reports.

Further, according to the British Heart Foundation, utilising figures from several sources including the British Medical Journal, it remains the case that despite a range of tobacco control measures being implemented, smoking rates amongst children remain consistently high and hundreds of children each day continue to take up smoking. Young people who smoke are at serious risk of developing life-shortening conditions. People who begin smoking at a young age are more likely to suffer tobacco-related mortality and morbidity, and succumb to tobacco-related diseases earlier.

The British Heart Foundation also says that a survey by LACORS ( the organisation responsible for overseeing local authority regulatory services in the UK), reporting on test purchases by young people under the supervision of trading standards officers showed that there was an almost two-fold increase in illegal sales of tobacco to minors in the six months from October 2007 to March 2008 compared with the same period in 2006/7.

The study found that young people were able to buy cigarettes from coin-operated vending machines on more than four in ten occasions, with a number of councils reporting a 100% successful purchase rate. Purchasing cigarettes from vending machines was the most successful way for young people to get hold of cigarettes.

It was almost twice as successful compared to other ways tested such as purchasing cigarettes from a newsagent, off licence or petrol station kiosk.

The BHF's campaign website urges support for the argument that cigarette machines should be banned and ask all concerned with this issue to sign their on-line petition:

"Smoking is a leading risk factor for heart disease. Even so, hundreds of young people under 18 take up smoking every day. We want to reduce the number of young people who are putting their health at risk. To help do this, we want to see an immediate ban on the sale of cigarettes from vending machines. It is against the law for anyone under 18 to use these machines, but we estimate that as many as 46,000 children get their cigarettes from vending machines in England and Wales."

You can add your name to the petition by clicking on the image to the right above.

Further concerns over the tobacco industries activities in promoting their product and aimed at maintaining and increasing cigarette addiction and therefore sales revenue, are evident when it comes to the use of the media - TV films and cinema - to spread the idea that cigarette smoking is the norm and safe.

Leading health campaigners in Liverpool argue that cigarette promotion in films that children see continues to be a source of revenue for the tobacco industry as children are influenced into believing that smoking is 'cool' and start up the habit which may well lead to their premature deaths.

Films where central characters are seen smoking are increasing and in many it is obvious that the actor concerned does not in fact themselves smoke.

Evidence proves that smoking in films influences young people to take up the habit. Research confirms that young people are:

Half of all smokers are recruited through exposure to smoking in films, of which 80% of these films are made in the US

There are however only 6 companies who are responsible for these films, which means only 6 companies who we have to target.

These companies are: Disney, News Corp. (Murdoch owned) Time Warner, General Electric (NBC/Universal), Sony, Viacom (Paramount)

Sources within the film industry report that some actors even find themselves in a position of not getting a role that requires their character to smoke in many scenes unless despite being a non smoker, they agree to 'puff' on a cigarette as is required by the script.

Tobacco companies pay large sums for product placement in major films. It is very rare indeed that for artistic reasons that a film character has to smoke. It is simply being written into screen plays to accommodate the tobacco industry and add another source of revenue for film production companies.

The group concerned with the promotion of tobacco via the film industry is Liverpool's D-MYST (Direct Movement by the Youth Smokefree Team). It is a group run by, and for young people to voice their opinions on tobacco and smoking.

Last month they teamed up with MD productions and SmokeFree Liverpool to hold a ‘scary’ street activity event on 30th October 2008 in the new Liverpool One shopping district Liverpool city centre, to raise awareness with the public of smoking in movies.

D.Myst's aim is to internationally try to get people to sign up to a four point policy when dealing with smoking in movies:

* Certify no payoffs. * Stop identifying tobacco brands. * Require strong anti-smoking ads prior to film screening.

* Give future films with tobacco an 18 rating. The World Health Organisation endorsed this in 2003.

For more information visit: www.d-myst.info

Designed, Hosted and Maintained by Union Safety Services