Call for tougher action as tobacco advertising goes up in smoke

Today the Health Promotion Agency for Northern Ireland welcomed a ban on tobacco advertising in newspapers, magazines and on billboards but called for tougher action to help stub out the life-threatening habit altogether.

Dr Brian Gaffney, Chief Executive of the Health Promotion Agency, said:
"We are delighted that this ban on tobacco advertising is at last coming into effect, but further measures are needed. We admire the lead taken in the Republic of Ireland where a ban on smoking in public places was recently announced and we would call for a similar ban in Northern Ireland.

"However, the stamping out of tobacco advertising in Northern Ireland is encouraging for all of us involved in health promotion. Young people in particular are heavily influenced by advertising and we are relieved the tobacco industry's power to recruit new smokers through this medium will no longer exist."

Dr Gaffney explained the Agency's call for a ban on smoking in public places:
"Seven out of ten adults in Northern Ireland do not smoke and there is a growing demand for increased protection from the dangers of passive smoking. The health damaging effects of passive smoking are fact and this makes smoking in public places, including bars, morally and socially unacceptable; now is the time to declare it legally unacceptable."

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