Stars called up to battle anti-smokers

A battle of Biblical proportions between the forces of good and evil is predicted for the dawn of the new millennium.

Squaring up for a fight to the death - quite literally, perhaps - are the massed ranks of the anti-smoking lobby, versus the celebrity crack-troops of the international tobacco industry.

Stars who smoke, including Geri Halliwell, Robbie Williams, Chris Evans, Jo Brand, Neil Pearson and ageing boy racer Jeremy Clarkson, have been lined up for a Hogmanay nicotine fest by Forest, an avowedly pro-smoking organisation funded largely by cigarette manufacturers.

A similarly star-studded bash is planned when Forest plans an assault on Scotland, in the form of an Edinburgh office which is due to open in February.

At stake in this battle are the hearts, minds and particularly lungs of the 140,000 Scottish nicotine addicts who, it has been estimated, want to kick their unhealthy habit over New Year.

Groups such as Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) want to help them succeed by providing plenty of encouragement and nicotine replacement therapy. Forest has sworn to stymie the effort.

Last week it issued a cheeky declaration of war when it sent a Christmas card to Maureen Moore, director of Ash Scotland, containing a manifesto pledging the promotion of hedonism into the 21st century.

In it, Forest director Charles Clark, urges smokers to "stick to their guns and keep puffing, if that's what they want to do" and promises anti-smoking campaigners "a run for their money".

He argues that the threat to health is exaggerated. "I accept there are risks," he said. "But in a democratic society freedom of choice and individual responsibility are even more important."

Not to Moore. "Tobacco-related diseases are still killing off 13,000 Scots a year," she said. "How can Forest talk about freedom?"

Clark claims Forest's interest in being close to the Scottish parliament is purely altruistic, and that it has nothing to do with lobbying.

He also says that he is simply appalled at the public pillorying of Scottish Secretary John Reid for his heavy smoking habit, and bemoans tales of gasping MSPs being ordered to indulge well away from the smoke-free Parliament building.

"I would love to run a smokers' shuttle bus to collect the poor, persecuted masses from outside the place, and run them down to Holyrood Palace," he said. "By the time they got back again, they'd have had their cigarette and still be nice and dry and warm."

Anti-smoking activists would rather see more being done to help them give up. The Health Education Board's telephone counselling service, Smokeline, now in its eighth year, and about to take its 500,000th call, cannot tackle the problem alone, so an extra #3m of government cash has been devoted to the cessation cause in Scotland. "It is the most cost-effective thing the NHS can do, when you consider the cost of treating smoking-related diseases," said Moore.

Every health board area in the country now has orders to develop services to support those going through tobacco withdrawal, which may include anger counselling and diet advice. Soon reforming smokers on low incomes will qualify for one week's free supply of nicotine replacement therapy Glasgow wants to use its #191,000 cessation windfall to target the most deprived areas, where smoking levels are notoriously high: in Shettleston, recently dubbed the sickest constituency in Britain, 50% of young women are smokers.

"It's about addressing life circumstances, confidence and self- esteem and not just nicotine patches," said Fiona Campbell, co- ordinator of the Glasgow 2000 anti-smoking promotion group.

"For the first time in a long time, the real blocks to giving up smoking are being addressed and we are finding innovative ways of working."

Moore is optimistic that, given the right approach, it will work. "We need to get over that giving up smoking is a hard thing to do, and people have to see it as trying, not failing, if they don't succeed," she said. "Most ex-smokers have a few goes before they kick it for good."

Clark is sceptical. "Good luck to anyone who wants to give up. But people make all sorts of promises at this time of year, and almost always break them. Smokers are no different," he said.

Copyright 1999
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