Posts Tagged smoking
Sending the Right Smoke Signals
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Health, Politics on 11/11/2011
By Emily Clarke
In 2001 Portugal abolished all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs, from cannabis to heroin, in an attempt to reduce the number of drug related deaths and the spread of HIV/AIDS. After several years there was tentative discussion about the success of Portugal’s scheme (see for example the Economist’s article of August 2009) and although I don’t intend to add to the debate about the decriminalisation of drug use here, I do hope to discuss one particular element of Portugal’s policy that I find laudable.
An addendum: the new ‘underclass’
Posted by James Gubb in Health on 01/10/2008
This blog last Thursday wrote about whether or not the government was pushing the public health agenda too far without proper debate on the implications for civil liberty. Apparently, this doesn’t seem to matter a jot to the Department of Health.
The smoking police
Posted by James Gubb in Civil Liberty, Health on 25/09/2008
Ealing PCT’s new campaign to ‘help’ smokers quit goes to the heart of a debate too-often ignored: the proper limits of state intervention in the name of public health.
A prescription for disaster
Posted by Nick Cowen in Civil Liberty, Health on 24/10/2007
Professor Julian Le Grand has a radical strategy for tackling the supposed problems of ill health in the UK: smoking permits (which might require a doctor’s note), an ‘exercise hour’ for company employees, a ban on additional salt in foods, more free fruit in general and more stern notes sent to the homes of children that have been found to be obese. Le Grand calls this broad sweep of measures ‘libertarian paternalism’, claiming, perversely that none of these actually restrict individual freedom. Wouldn’t ‘libertarian paternalism’ be more normally understood as a friendly word of advice without the backing of force?
I smoke… really, I started today!!
Posted by James Gubb in Health on 25/04/2007
Today the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) released guidance that calls on firms to help smokers quit, particularly in the run up to the public ban on smoking that comes into force in England on 1 July. This includes more uncontroversial advice such as employers providing information on where staff can go for help in quitting, and the possibility of NHS ‘stop smoking’ services being held on large firms’ premises if there is the demand. Evidence suggests that 3 in 4 smokers want to quit – if this is the case then making services to help them more accessible should probably help. One criticism also often loaded at the NHS is that it is too heavily focused on treating illness rather than helping to prevent them in the first place. There is little doubt that smoking is linked to any number of different, and serious conditions, that cost the NHS huge sums of public money. So, if such measures do help to prevent illness by stopping people smoking, then we may justifiably support them. Industry would also be glad – smoking is estimated to cost them £5bn in lost productivity, absenteeism and fire damage. Incredibly, evidence suggests that smokers have, on average, 8 days more off work sick than non-smokers.
But this does not justify NICE’s more radical proposal – that employers allow smokers to attend anti-smoking clinics during work time.