Numbers game
Apart from finding them difficult to believe, I’d be interested in how they were obtained. The most relevant point would be the total number of children questioned (20,000+?) – or is this yet more plucked-from-the-air “statistics”?
It would also be reassuring to know that Cancer Research UK’s senior Scottish public affairs manager Vicky Crichton’s definitive claim that children are lured into smoking, “tempted by glitzy, slickly designed packs”, is based on the same 20,000 being asked the obvious question.
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Hide AdI’ve never understood campaigners’ refusal to provide evidence for such an unlikely claim – most children get their first cigarette from a pal – especially when Cancer Research UK itself discovered from a group of 15-year-olds that they hardly noticed packaging and didn’t recognise cigarette packets shown to them.
Given that stores are now hiding cigarettes behind blank screens, it’s difficult to see any point in pursuing plain packaging.
I fully support all moves to prevent children from taking up this dangerous habit, but I seriously object to the near hysteria behind these false claims.
Robert Dow
Ormiston Road
Tranent