Britain v. Cigarettes

Last week for the first time the government of a major nation took strong official action to discourage its citizens from smoking cigarettes. Acting on evidence that cigarettes cause lung cancer, Britain's Ministries of Health and Education began sending out circulars putting their support behind a report by a nine-man committee of the prestigious Royal College of Physicians. The committee had done no new scientific work, but it spent almost three years evaluating existing statistical and medical data. Its unqualified conclusion: "Cigarette smoking is a cause of lung cancer."

Health Minister J. Enoch Powell told Parliament: "This report demonstrates authoritatively and crushingly the causal connection between smoking and lung cancer." He agreed to carry out the Royal College's recommendation that "general discouragement of smoking, particularly by young people, is necessary." And he promised to consider other measures urged by the Royal College, which would:

o Keep children from buying tobacco products, restrict tobacco advertising, and cut down smoking in public places.

o Boost the tax on cigarettes--already 46-c- on average brands selling for 63-c- a pack--and reduce it on less harmful cigars and pipe tobacco.

o Try anti-smoking clinics for those who find it hard to quit.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.