Puffed up
May 23rd, 2006
Hooray for the Express & Echo which is determined to ‘do something’ about teen smoking - despite all their hacks regularly puffing away like retired colonels (possibly).
Its front page on Saturday told the sorry tale of a schoolgirl from Exeter who admitted smoking up to 40 cigarettes a day.
The rag also revealed staggering new figures that around 10 per cent of 11- to 15-year-olds in Exeter are smokers. Yes, that’s 10 per cent. Of every 11- to 15-year-old. Well knock us down with a very big feather.
Of course, PRSD readers might, if anything, expect the figures to be understating the true number of young smokers.
They might also think that a 40 a day habit is pretty good going for someone who spends eight hours a day in school (are they letting kids light up in RE or something?).
However the issue has provoked apoplexy on www.thisisexeter.co.uk.
“It is absolutely diabolical,” snorts Anne-Marie, from Newton Abbot.
“Don’t these children know the side effects of smoking? Are the schools teaching them this?”
Luckily, the mysteriously named Anon, from Exeter, takes a more sympathetic line, advising: “The 15-year-old’s mother should be taken to court by Social Services and the daughter put in care.”
A-ha! We bet ‘Anon’ is a pseudonym for the editor of the Express & Echo. Rumbled!
Posted by Thin White Duke
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