Despite a setback in the European Court of Justice, ASH has kept the pressure on for an advertising ban and it is expected that a Bill will now be taken through the UK Parliament - ASH will lead the lobbying effort and preparations are now underway. More information about tobacco advertising is available here . Aiming to influence the NHS National Plan to place greater emphasis on primary health care. Producing guidelines for implementation of the NHS National Plan. More information on smoking cessation issues is available here .
Smoking is the crucial factor in health inequalities.
ASH believes this is a very important issue and has begun working jointly with the Health Development Agency to assist the Government in defining appropriate programmes that will help to ensure the target is reached. The major international tobacco companies are now engaged in a desperate bid to reinvent themselves as responsible and reformed. Central to their effort is the appearance of opposing smoking by young people and a promotion of measures aimed ostensibly at preventing underage smoking. ASH and the Cancer Research Campaign jointly carried out a critique of these youth anti-smoking programmes. The findings of the research showed that the tobacco industry's youth focus is no more than an exercise in disingenuous, self-serving public relations.