Tobacco saga must inform obesity war

The great public health war of recent decades focussed on tobacco and the terrible impact it had — or continues to have — on users’ health.

Though smoking is not in any way as socially acceptable as it once was, far too many people still smoke, despite startling figures that show the final, unavoidable consequences of that lethal habit.

Around 7,000 people die from smoking-related disease in Ireland every year; 90% of lung cancers are caused by smoking and 50% of all smokers will die from smoking-related diseases. That all of these diseases — or premature deaths — might be avoided if people thought rationally about the health advice around smoking, seems an irrelevance to those who still smoke.