Fiona Bruce MP campaigns with Sandbach School students for plain packaging of Tobacco products
Fiona Bruce MP campaigned recently with Amber Sparks, a student at Sandbach Girls School, and Owen MacCuish, Head Boy of Sandbach Boys School, to press the Government in introduce standardised packaging for cigarettes. Every cigarette company would have to package their product in the same unattractive boxes containing graphic health warnings
Fiona Bruce who has campaigned since her election, for standardised packaging of tobacco products said “I was delighted to meet with Amber and Owen to hear of their support for this campaign, particularly since they are both members of Cheshire East Youth Council and the National Youth Parliament and therefore respective role models and advocates for their generation – the one which standardised packaging could most make a positive difference to.”
Fiona Bruce continued “Young people are attracted to designer brands. They are attracted not just to the product but to the packaging. We have known for a long time that young people are attracted to labels. In 1995 a survey of youth in America told us that young people associated the following words with designer packaging: popular, cool and good-looking. With cigarettes in plain packaging, they associated the words boring, geeky and cheap. In 2012, another survey found that young people felt that if they smoked stylish packs they would be “better and more popular”.
It is a tragedy that each year 200,000 people start to smoke when we could take action. According to one statistic I have seen, the display ban on large shops has contributed towards 100,000 fewer young people taking up smoking each year. I hope these regulations will help make smoking history for children.
Standardised tobacco packaging could ensure that we protect children and save lives. The best way to stop smoking is not to start in the first place.”
