This is a new website in the Netherlands (Dutch language) that’s getting a lot of attention locally.
The website was set up by two lung specialists. Their goal is to prevent tobacco use, in particular among young people, and to that end they want to openly discuss the tactics used by the tobacco lobby to achieve their goals.
An important part of the website, and what’s gaining the most attention, is their revealing all the known links between the Dutch government and tobacco industry. It’s a very aggressive naming and shaming of the big players, and involves some very well known people in the country, like the Prime Minister and Minister of Public Health.
There’s been a remarkable change in this country in the last few years. We’ve gone from almost no smoking controls, even to the extent that some school teachers smoked in front of the children during class, to a partial public smoking ban and active discussion of youth smoking. There’s even some discussion about going to plain cigarette packaging, like has just happened in Australia.
Even though an international treaty that Holland is a signatory of requires it, and some 80% of the country is in favor, we still don’t have a comprehensive public smoking ban!
There’s really increasing impatience with the smoking lobby here, and as the lung doctors who started the website point out, dealing with the tactics of the smoking lobby is really the first important step in dealing with the overall problem in the country.
This website is likely to be very effective here. Already nearly all the important political parties and politicians have had some reaction to it, if only to say they don’t find it meaningful. If a politician here says something like this website isn’t meaningful, that means they’re scared! A couple of important political parties have come forward to say they agree with the goals of the website.
Holland is a small country, making something like this more effective than in a place like the US, where there are so many jurisdictions and politicians. I still think something like this could help a lot in the battle against the food industry, almost anywhere in the world.
Anyone out there looking for a good project to get started on?
There is a new kind of commercial being shown here. I watch little tv so I may have missed them but I think they are new. These commercials show graphically the effects of smoking with narration by the person shown. I was very surprised to see this. I hope they convince people to stay away from tobacco. If anything can I should think it would be these little films.
They have those graphic images on the packing here.
I guess every little bit helps, but I think too that no public information campaign is going to compete with the tactics of the tobacco lobby.
Compare what you saw on TV with this YouTube video that’s mentioned on the Tabaknee website for example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiFwfiT-yJE&feature=youtu.be
Who do you think will win in the end?
Here is one of the ‘commercials’ Patrick. I think they can all be seen on the Centers For Disease Control website.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zWB4dLYChM
In a story from 2012 that I’ve just now read, a federal judge ruled graphic warnings on cigarette packs unconstitutional. Guess that has not changed in the year since…
As horrible as something like that looks to adults, I wonder if the message really gets through to young people. In fact, this video looks very watered down by the tobacco industry to me.
When you’re young, you feel invincible. If you look at the woman in the video, and you look at the people in the world around you, you don’t see many people like her. On the other hand, it’s easy to find lots of people who have quit smoking, and easy to conclude that it must be possible for anyone to quit smoking later if they want.
Addiction to tobacco is a lifelong reality, and can happen after just a few puffs. Even if you ‘stop smoking’, which is very, very hard to do, it’s just that — stopping, and the addiction and cravings remain. Most people who stop, don’t really stop, and return to smoking later. Unlike the person in the video, the most common health problem with smoking is death. If you smoke, you have a 50% chance of dying from a smoking related disease. In the Netherlands right now, the leading cause of death is lung cancer, this is mostly from smoking and is largely uncurable.
I think until this message is clearly and consistently communicated, TV commercials like this one won’t be effective and might even be a little counterproductive.
For example, videos like this one might be more effective:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVLtNgAhPRg
I hear you Patrick. Have not watched the youtube video of your last message. I will try to. Sticking to caring for my seedlings tonight. I was thinking when I watched the tv spots-..the tobacco industry probably has a message hidden in them, “smoke! smoke, smoke!”. Kids do feel invincible! Like the car wreck movies of driver’s ed could make someone feel they can defy that & so they drive w-recklessly. I do hope those tv spots do good. Older people can stop too. My Dad quit smoking heavily in the middle of his life & lived to be 86. (Though tobacco is more lethal now I bet!)
It was in the news today that an appeals court judge just reinstated a comprehensive smoking ban in food and drink establishments. He said the Netherlands signed a treaty, so now it needs to be implemented — doh!
Now on to the issue of enforcement…