As long as a diseased liver is embossed on every pint glass I don't mind. And while we're at it a close up of furred arteries on chocolate biscuits? How about big posters of road crash fatalities next to each speed camera?
Ridiculous.
Anyone see the picture of that old lady who just turned a 100 in the paper yesterday? She was lighting a cig with her bday candles. Said she started smoking when she was 14. Looks fit as a fiddle. Go figure.
Obviously single statistics prove nothing. And there is no point anyone suggesting that smoking isn't bad for you, or that it doesn't increase your chances of dying early from some dreadful condition. It is and it does. Like others here I've seen it first hand - and despite that, still smoked myself for many years.Anyone see the picture of that old lady who just turned a 100 in the paper yesterday? She was lighting a cig with her bday candles. Said she started smoking when she was 14. Looks fit as a fiddle. Go figure.
After all they lift so much in tax from ciggies. I realise that they would have smaller NHS costs if no-one smoked, but surely people would just get sick in other ways instead.
Does the expenditure treating smokers on the NHS outweigh the contribution made by ciggie tax to the exchequer's coughers? If not, it'd be a shame, as you imply, if these people died of untaxed, and thus unfunded, illnesses instead.
Ah but, the difference is. Smoking IS bad for you, whether it is 5 a day or 50 a day. Lager, chocolate, etc are not bad for you in moderation.
Can't comment on the maths.
But as an example, say the Gov get 50% of the cost of each packet (£5) in tax.
So if I start smoking 20 a day at 16 and die at 65, this is approx £45K in tax the Gov get off me.
But some treatments for cancer are very expensive I'm sure, so I would say the tax they get wouldn't cover the cost of treatment.
But then again not all smokers die of cancer related illness. Some are hit by buses or die of other things!!
Or you could say, because smoking "a" cigarette is a sedative it causes less anxiety, ergo less likely to get worked up and have a heart attack
week i know
Does the expenditure treating smokers on the NHS outweigh the contribution made by ciggie tax to the exchequer's coughers? If not, it'd be a shame, as you imply, if these people died of untaxed, and thus unfunded, illnesses instead.