RCP Calls For Tougher Government Action On Smoking

On the 50th anniversary of a groundbreaking report by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) on the danger of smoking, fresh calls have been made for tougher action by government.

The RCP published a celebrated report in 1962 which was hoped would lead to a decline in smoking by having doctors explaining the dangers directly to the public. Today they have called for tougher government measures.

"The real failure is political leadership," said Professor John Britton, chair of the RCP’s tobacco advisory group. "Some of our governments in the past have been extremely close to the tobacco industry. Margaret Thatcher left office and took up a three-year role with Philip Morris, and Kenneth Clarke, who had been a health secretary, became a director of British American Tobacco."

Despite a drop in smoking rates, due in part to the smoking ban established in 2007, the college says that the 20% of people now smoking stand to lose 100m years of life between them.

At a one-day conference happening today at the college, health secretary Andrew Lansley will face demands for price rises, plain packaging, prime-time TV campaigns and curbs on smoking in films.

Dr Mike Knapton, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, agrees that plain packaging should be introduced: "We need to do more to discourage children and young people starting smoking in the first place," he said. "The evidence shows young people are influenced, and sometimes misled, by glitzy cigarette packaging, so stripping packs of their attractive colours and logos by introducing plain, standardised packaging will help lessen the lure of smoking to a new generation."

(H/GK)