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No-smoking campaign row flares

A high powered anti-smoking programme claimed to be the largest ever co-ordinated attempt to tackle the epidemic of smoking among young people, has flared into controversy within days of its launch.

The ‘national’ programme, Towards a Smoke Free Generation, has been allocated central funding of £2.2 million a year for three years from the Department of Health, but it will only be operational in England and not the lung cancer black spot of Scotland, or Northern Ireland and Wales.

Speaking at the launch of the government-funded campaign, Health Education Authority director of programmes Donald Reid said: ‘Unless we act, one million children and teenagers alive today in Britain will eventually die from smoking if present trends continue’.

A Department of Health spokesperson was not able to comment on why the government was allocating such a large injection of funds to campaign in England but not to other parts of Britain.

Scottish Health Education Group principal educationalist Eldon Zuill commented: ‘Scotland has the largest problem of lung cancer in Britain yet the SHEG has only £70,000 a year to devote to anti-smoking campaigns. One must ask why England has been singled out for this programme. The only answer seems to be political expediency.’

A spokesperson for the Scottish Home and Health Department confirmed that there were no plans to carry out a similar style campaign in Scotland. ‘The Scottish office gives cash to SHEG to carry out its campaign on smoking,’ they added, ‘ It is up to SHEG how it uses its money.’

Health Authority Promotion for Wales media officer Helen Roberts confirmed that no extra funds had been allocated for a co-ordinated anti-smoking campaign in Wales.

The English programme will involve TV and cinema advertising, curriculum material for schools, support for innovative local projects, mass campaigns aimed at young people, and support for action to reduce illegal sales of cigarettes to under 16-year-olds.

Films portraying positive images to anti-smoking (see healthmatters issue 2) have been specially commissioned for the campaign from director and photographer David Bailey, although as healthmatters went to press neither the SHEG nor the WHPA were able to say if even these films would be available for use on Scottish or Welsh TV or cinemas.