World No Tobacco Day raises health, freedom issues in Britain - Xinhua

LONDON, May 31, (Xinhua) -- The World No Tobacco Day, which falls on Thursday, drew a mixed response from pressure groups in Britain where anti-tobacco legislation is among the toughest in the world.

These anti-smoking legislations includes a ban on smoking in public venues introduced five years ago and a ban on tobacco advertising and promotion, introduced at the beginning of the millennium.

However, the legislation is criticized as not going far enough by some, and going too far by others, who now cite civil liberties issues as a major component of their objections.

Britain is "probably one of the best regimes in Europe, and possibly in the world in terms of tobacco control regulation," Amanda Sandford, research manager of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), told Xinhua.

The laws and regulations are effective, Sandford said, citing statistical evidence.

In the 1970s, over half of all adult men and about 40 percent of women were smokers, and now the rates have fallen to 20 percent for both men and women, she said.

The emphasis now was to introduce further restrictions by lobbying lawmakers and civil servants in government with the focus on the moment when cigarettes are packed, according to ASH, one of the major and longest standing anti-smoking pressure groups in Britain.

When tobacco advertising was banned, "the companies started to invest more on making the packs themselves very attractive and glitzy, and now they are the main marketing tool," said Sandford.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the argument, is the pressure group Freedom Organization for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco (FOREST).

FOREST was founded in 1979 by a pipe-smoker who even at that time found rules and regulations on tobacco smoking irksome.

FOREST director Simon Clark told Xinhua that his group defended the interests of adults who choose to smoke.

"I am a non-smoker and there are millions like me who feel the war on tobacco has gone too far and we are now seeing the quite blatant discrimination against people who want to smoke. There are now some companies who do not want to employ smoker, they advertise for non-smokers only," said Clark.

Clark raised the issue of freedom of choice and attacked anti-tobacco legislation.

"It is no longer about educating people about the health risks of smoking. We see campaigns designed to force people to give up smoking, and in many cases laws are being introduced that are a form of social engineering," said Clark.

Clark said that Britain has gone from being "a Nanny State to, in our view, a Bully State," as legislation is moving toward prohibiting tobacco.

"You cannot prohibit a product like tobacco," he said, adding that the anti-smoking campaigns in the United States in the 1920s and 30s "simply did not work."

"You drive the product underground, it still exists on the black market, and criminal gangs get involved. They are the ones who benefit, and government loses out on a huge revenue stream," said Clark.

For ASH's Sandford, the pro-smoking lobby and tobacco companies were always trying to defeat laws and tougher legislation.

"Whenever the government announces new measures to reduce smoking, the tobacco companies always object and they always try to minimize or even overturn the laws on tobacco control. And yet the public are generally very supportive of tobacco control measures," she said.