Charity leader calls a halt as thousands of Scottish children given tobacco every day

Alastair MacKinnon, Chief Executive of children’s health education charity Fast Forward, is calling on adults to stop giving tobacco to Scotland’s children. 

Many adults still buy tobacco for children, thinking that they’re “doing them a favour”. In fact, all they’re doing is setting young children up for a lifetime of addiction, expense and poor health, while lining the pockets of the tobacco industry. 

Alastair has signed up as a Champion for Scotland’s Charter for a Tobacco-free Generation – a set of six principles to help the next generation grow up without the health problems and financial costs caused by smoking. Alastair will champion principle 5: 

“all young people should be protected from commercial interests which profit from recruiting new smokers” 

The Charter has been produced by health campaign ASH Scotland, and has now been signed by over 180 organisations, each pledging to do what they can to help bring about a tobacco-free generation. 

Principle 5 is supported by ASH Scotland’s #notafavour campaign, which aims to shed light on the problems caused by so called “proxy purchasing”, where children give adults money to buy tobacco on their behalf. 

Alastair MacKinnon said: 

“Some adults think that they’re doing young people a favour when they buy them tobacco – particularly if it happened for them when they were at school. But it’s not a victimless crime. 

“We know from talking to teachers that in schools where smoking rates are high in the local community, cigarettes are sold to younger children by teen smokers in order to maintain their own smoking. Tobacco given to a young friend or relative finds its way to new child smokers and that is what keeps the tobacco industry in business. 

“Adults willing to buy tobacco for young people are really just carrying out the work of Big Tobacco. They’re leading young people into addiction, long-term health problems and huge financial cost. It has to stop.” 

Sheila Duffy, Chief Executive of ASH Scotland, said:

 “The tobacco industry uses every trick in the book to snare new young people into becoming smokers, with the result that 36 children start smoking every day in Scotland.  We mustn’t do their job for them. 

“Two thirds of adult smokers want to quit, and the vast majority started young. Smoking is an incredibly harmful addiction and still Scotland’s leading cause of death. The vast majority of adults know it’s wrong to buy tobacco for young people and don’t do it. We’re committed to getting the message out.” 

See Alastair MacKinnon interviewed by ASH Scotland about his support for Principle 5 of Scotland’s Charter for a Tobacco-free Generation (All young people should be protected from the commercial interests which profit from recruiting new smokers) at: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqBRHI5lU30 

ENDS 

For further information please contact ASH Scotland on 0131 225 4725 or enquiries@ashscotland.org.uk (out of hours mobile 07776 142 299). Or contact Fast Forward on 0131 554 4300 or alastair@fastforward.org.uk

Sheila Duffy will be available for interview from 1PM-3PM on Monday 29 January, while Alastair MacKinnon will be available throughout the afternoon. 

Notes for Editors 

The Charter for a Tobacco-free Generation is an initiative by health charity ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) Scotland to help deliver a tobacco-free generation by 2034 (by this we mean less than 5% of the population still smokes). The Charter inspires organisations to take action to reduce the harm caused by tobacco in their communities. 

Further information can be found at www.ashscotland.org.uk/charter. 

• Every day in Scotland, 36 young people become new smokers.
• Among regular teen smokers, the most common sources of cigarettes were getting someone else to buy them and being given them. 13 year olds were more likely to buy them from others than buy them from shops. The reverse was true for 15 year olds.
• Evidence shows that the younger a person starts to smoke, the more likely they are to continue smoking into adulthood, the more heavily they are likely to smoke as an adult and the more likely they are to fall ill and die early as a result of smoking.
• Preventing or delaying children from taking up smoking has been shown to reduce the burden of disease in later life and make it more likely that they will not smoke.
• One in three (34%) adults in the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland smoke cigarettes

ASH Scotland Fast Fact Sheet Young People & Tobacco: http://www.ashscotland.org.uk/media/5862/5youngpeople.pdf 

Action on Smoking & Health (Scotland) (ASH Scotland) is an independent Scottish charity working in partnership to protect people from the harm caused by tobacco. Registered Scottish charity number SC 010412.