A LUNG cancer victim from Northumberland has backed calls to standardise cigarette packets so that children are not “lured in” by the glitzy boxes.
Father-of-four Jim Richardson, 56, who runs a day nursery and after-school clubs in Hexham and near his home in Prudhoe, said he wanted to ensure youngsters do not suffer the pain he has endured.
“The day I started smoking I bought into a contract to kill me,” he said.
“And I ask children if we were all going to run across a motorway and all of us would be hit, 90% of us dying of their injuries within a year, who would fancy it,” he said. “That’s how my cancer was.”
Latest figures, released today by Cancer Research UK, show that almost 160,000 11 to 15-year-olds start smoking every year in the UK.
The charity, which supports a move for plain packaging for tobacco, says eight out of 10 people start smoking before they are 19 and more must be done to prevent youngsters starting.
“I think when I started everyone was smoking,” said Mr Richardson, who took his first drag at 15 “because it was considered cool” and was diagnosed with a melon-sized, inoperable tumour in 2010.
“All the sports stars, actors and actresses, my headteacher and I think even the prime minister were smokers.
“It was just normal. But nowadays we know the consequences of the hideous habit – it kills you.
“So I’m all for plain packaging as it’s one less reason to pick up cigarettes in the first place.”
Mr Richardson was particularly disdainful of cigarette brands which market themselves as fashionable accessories and appeal to young girls.
“I would hate to think that any of the hundreds of children we have looked after might ever go through what I have because they were tempted by one glitzy packet attempting to make smoking look cool,” said Mr Richardson.
“Some of the cigarette companies say it’s not important what their boxes look like, but you go into a supermarket and look at the cigarette counter. Tell me why, if that’s the case, they spend so much to have the most eye-catching box.
“This whole plain packet thing isn’t about trying to tell 50-year-olds about the risks, because they already know them, but if it stopped just one young person from taking up smoking it would be a good thing, because smoking is a killer.” Ailsa Rutter, director of North East anti-smoking campaign Fresh, said: “Smoking is an addiction that starts in childhood and evidence shows young people are more likely to be attracted to colourful tobacco packaging.
“This is hardly surprising when you see glamorous brands and glitzy packaging on the shelves. The tobacco industry is essentially gift-wrapping colourful killers, and making them look like make up products, mp3 players. Some are even considered to resemble Lego.
“We want people to support the introduction of plain, standardised packaging for tobacco products as a measure to prevent children and vulnerable young people from taking up smoking and a lifetime of addiction.”
