Still a killer 50 years on... is it time to stub out smoking for good?

The Royal College of Physicians (RCP), whose 1962 report started to turn the tide in attitudes towards smoking, has said that more than a fifth of the population still smokes and that half of people who smoke are known to die from their habit.

Since 1962, it is estimated that more than six million people have died as a result of smoking and although tens of thousands of lives have been saved as a result of fewer people smoking today, the RCP believes the cost of tobacco and cigarettes should be put up, arguing that although heavily taxed, cigarettes are still 50 per cent more affordable now than they were in 1965.

It also wants “unnecessary” brand images for tobacco removed from films and TV programmes watched by children and young people, and is leading calls for the smoking ban to be extended to parks and other public areas.

This comes as the Government yesterday announced a new initiative, which will begin later this month, designed to cut the number of smoking-related deaths.

A consultation is about to start on whether to ban logos and introduce plain packaging for tobacco, while supermarkets will be forced to remove tobacco displays by April 6.

Speaking at the Royal College of Physicians, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: “I remember when it was acceptable to smoke anywhere, at work, on trains and in planes. It’s easy to forget that wasn’t too long ago, and how far we have come. But we must do much more. More than eight million people continue to smoke despite stark data that shows it kills half of smokers and around 90 per cent of lung cancer deaths in the UK are caused by smoking.”

Such hard-hitting talk is a far cry from 1962, when few people took the dangers posed by smoking cigarettes seriously. Back then around 70 per cent of men and 40 per cent of women smoked in the UK. And they smoked everywhere – on buses and trains, in offices, and even in schools and hospitals.

But the author’s of the RCP report new they needed to get their message across to an audience who probably didn’t want to hear what they had to say, so they launched it in a blaze of publicity using what was then an innovative new technique – the press conference.

The message slowly got through and by 1965 cigarette advertising on TV was banned in the UK and six years later health warnings appeared on cigarette packets. By the time smoking in pubs was banned in the summer of 2007, it had become a minority activity.

Even so, over 80,000 people still die from smoking-related diseases every year. “Smoking is still the biggest avoidable killer in the UK,” says Professor John Britton, chairman of the RCP tobacco advisory group.

“There is so much more that can and should be done to prevent the death, disease and human misery that smoking causes. Our Government needs to act at the highest level to tackle smoking head on, and eradicate it from our society and particularly our children’s futures.”

Sir Richard Thompson, RCP president, says that while progress has been made he wants to see smoking become a thing of the past. “I hope that in another 50 years smoking, like slavery, will have passed into history.”

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