So the time has come to officially announce our latest Cancer Research UK Campaign. I will be working hard alongside my fellow ambassadors to support CRUK. We will be campaigning for the government to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes in all four nations of the UK
The Campaign is explained on our website www.theanswerisplain.org . If you are on Twitter please follow the campaign and tweet use the hashtag #packetracket
Before we begin unveiling details of this potentially historic campaign, we would like to make a very important point: I, and everyone else at CRUK, fight for EVERYONE suffering from cancer and EVERYONE who will suffer from cancer at some point in the future. No one deserves cancer; it is a horrific disease that changes the lives of sufferers and their loved ones. It is cruel and aggressive. It doesn’t discriminate. This campaign is not aimed at making smokers feel like pariahs. It is not aimed at taking away your rights as a smoker. It is not aimed at making smokers lives more difficult. It’s not aimed at making smokers feel embarrassed, ashamed, guilty or pressurised to quit. This campaign is aimed at children and trying to get them to not take up smoking in the first place.
We are very passionate cancer campaigners but we try not to judge those who choose to smoke so please do not think this blog post or this campaign is judging you as a smoker. I have family members that do smoke and I don’t waste time preaching to them about their habit. In my opinion, you will smoke until you decide to quit. In this day and age nobody can claim ignorance about the damage smoking has on your health and if you are happy to smoke despite these facts then I wish you good luck and I sincerely hope your habit does not lead to cancer. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
Facts about Smoking:
There are clear, scientifically proven links between cancer and smoking. One in every four UK cancer deaths are directly caused by smoking and a fifth of all cases of cancer in the UK are directly caused by smoking. Smoking is the largest PREVENTABLE cause of cancer in the world. Half of all smokers will eventually die from cancer or other smoking related illnesses.
There are over eighty cancer causing substances in tobacco smoke. As you inhale this smoke, these chemicals are released into your lungs and spread around your body. These chemicals can actually damage your DNA and mutate important genes in your body, making your cells grow and multiply until they are out of control. “Social” smoking is just as bad for you as it is proven that smoking and drinking alcohol together is very harmful as the alcohol allows tobacco smoke to absorb into your tongue quicker.
The Campaign:
Cancer Research UK receives no government funding but has become the world’s leading charity dedicated to fighting cancer and saving lives through research. The charity is committed to reducing the harm caused by tobacco and has played a significant role in securing a ban on tobacco advertising, creating smoke free workplaces, removing cigarette vending machines and most recently changing the laws surrounding tobacco displays in retailers (See A Successful Campaign) We are now working hard to secure plain packaging and if the campaign is successful then the UK will become the first nation in Europe to introduce plain packaging.
Research has shown that eight out of ten smokers have started smoking by the age of nineteen. Most of these smokers will develop an addiction that will stay with them long into adulthood. Half of these long term smokers will die of a smoking related illness such as cancer. That is a huge amount of people suffering from an illness that could be prevented by not smoking in the first place.
Hundreds of thousands of teenagers start smoking every year. This is for many reasons: peer pressure, teenage rebellion, teenage curiosity, morbid fascination etc... But the fact is tobacco branding and marketing plays a huge role in persuading teenagers to take up smoking. They do this in three ways:
· Packets are designed to be attractive and communicate the “personality” of a brand. They can act as a “badge product” and an extension of a person’s identity
· Lighter packaging is often misleading as people assume these brands are healthier than others
· Packets with branding reduce the prominence of the health warnings.
CRUK are asking the government to introduce plain packaging ASAP. Today is the first day of a 90 day consultation, during which the government will look into introducing it permanently. The plain packaging will go hand in hand with the removal of cigarette displays in larger retailers. The two will work together to dissuade young people from taking up smoking in the first place. Removing displays will lead to smoking becoming less accessible for teenagers and less socially acceptable whilst plain packaging will make packets less attractive and health warnings more prominent. The plain packets will make all cigarettes look the same. They will be the same shape and will still have a health warning and the name of the brand but they won’t have any branding, design or logo.
Fact or Fiction?
CRUK is expecting a fight from tobacco companies who are very much against plain packaging for obvious reasons. The campaigns team at CRUK have been very thorough in their research and have providing their ambassadors with all the information needed. I have a list of arguments and rebuttals against plain packaging and I will write them here for you all to see:
“Plain Packaging will make packs easier to forge and will increase smuggling”
Tobacco products are already really easy to forge so covert markings are used to detect smuggled packs. These markings will remain on the plain packs.
“Plain Packaging will affect local shops”
Plain packaging is aimed at stopping young people from starting smoking so sales will decline slowly over time giving shops a chance to adjust. Plain packets will not have any detrimental effect on shopkeepers’ ability to find the requested pack’ peer-reviewed research has suggested that plain packs will actually speed up that process
“Cigarette prices will fall”
If there is any reduction in the price of cigarettes then taxes on cigarettes can be raised to compensate
“We can’t afford to lose tax from smokers”
Taxing of cigarettes contributes £10 billion to the treasury every year. HOWEVER the cost of smoking has been estimated to be £13.74 billion meaning the strain of smoking related illnesses cost more than the tax is brings in.
No figure can be put on the cost of human suffering caused by cancer
“Plain packaging is illegal as it infringes on trade mark rights”
Nobody is taking trademarks away by including plain packaging. International treaties have opt outs where public health in concerned so this is not an illegal move at all.
So that’s the outline of our latest campaign. Please support us and don’t think it is an attack on smokers because it really isn’t! This campaign is about children and saving them from a habit that increases the chances of encountering worrying, life threatening illnesses later on in life. Even if you are a smoker, I am sure you wouldn’t want your children to take up the habit. If you have any questions, please do let us know. You can always visit CRUK’s website to find out more about the campaign. The next 90 days will see lots of talk of plain packaging in the UK. Please follow the campaign and sign our petition if you support it. Pass it onto your friends and family and help us lower the number of deaths caused by smoking in the UK. We have high hopes for this campaign and will be working hard to make it happen. Cancer should be prevented in as many cases as possible and this campaign will allow us to make a huge step towards making that possible in the UK.
The answer is plain.
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