View among girls that smoking results in 'model figure'

YOUNG GIRLS were bombarded with subliminal messages suggesting that smoking would make them look like Kate Moss and other supermodels, Fianna Fáil health spokesman Billy Kelleher said.

“There is a view among teenage girls that smoking acts as a diet suppressant and will enable them to attain a model figure,” he said.

Mr Kelleher said that, of all the cohorts that should be targeted, young people, particularly young girls, were the most important.

“I speak more as a father than a politician in observing that while many male role models are healthy individuals – rugby players, soccer players, hurlers and so on – some of the role models presented to young girls are not so positive,” he said.

Welcoming the Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill 2011, Mr Kelleher said he is a smoker who had tried, once or twice, to give up. “We must be very conscious of the addictive nature of smoking when discussing health promotion and reducing tobacco consumption in Ireland,” he said.

Mr Kelleher said any policies that could be brought forward to discourage people, young people in particular, from starting smoking, or to encourage smokers to quit, were welcome.

He added the proposal to use graphic photographs on cigarette packets was positive, adding that research showed they made people more aware of the health impacts of smoking.

Sinn Féin’s Sandra McLellan said the Bill provided an opportunity to address some of the issues around smoking.

A survey had shown that despite banning the sale of cigarettes to those under 16 years of age, all adolescent smokers said they were able to buy cigarettes.

Many older smokers, she said, were experiencing hugely damaging health consequences.

“The campaign to reduce smoking and to work towards a smoke-free society is very important and needs to be maintained and expanded,” she added.

Ms McLellan said Action on Smoking and Health had expressed disappointment that ministers for finance had not increased the price of tobacco sufficiently in their budgets.

The organisation had argued that price was recognised by the World Health Organisation and others as the most important way of encouraging smokers to quit and of discouraging young people from experimenting with tobacco, she said.

She said the Government’s response – that such price increases might encourage smuggling – was inadequate. Ms McLellan said tobacco smuggling was a huge problem and needed to be tackled in its own right.