10 year olds smoke (where were the parents no one asks)?

Children as young as 10 offered shopping vouchers to give up smoking
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:33 PM on 10th February 2009

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1140843/Children-young-10-offered-shopping-vouchers-exchange-quitting-smoking.html

Add to My Stories Children as young as ten are being offered shopping vouchers to quit smoking, it has emerged.

Critics said the scheme, offered by NHS Brighton and Hove trust, would do little to discourage younger smokers from kicking the habit but health bosses insist the plan is working. East Sussex trust health promotion lead manager Kate Lawson admitted it had handed the 'rewards' to children who are eight years too young to legally buy a pack of cigarettes.

An NHS Trust is offering shopping vouchers to children as an incentive to stop smoking. Picture posed by models Brighton Pavilion MP David Lepper said he was in favour of the vouchers and said anything was worth a try Ms Lawson said at least one ten-year-old child had been given a £15 voucher for Asda or Tesco after undergoing a programme to stop smoking.

The news follows revelations that North-East Essex NHS Trust is paying pregnant woman £100 to quit smoking. However, the latest scheme has angered parents across the area. Mother-of- two Amanda Grange said: 'We have really come to something when we have to bribe a ten-year-old to quit the fags.

'And we are left footing the bill out of our council tax, - it's absolutely crazy.' Father Allen Hodges said he found it hard to believe a voucher would provide children with enough incentive to stop smoking. 'They'll probably be back on the cigs as soon as they've got the money in their pockets,' he said. 'This really doesn't strike me as a very good idea at all.'

But Ms Lawson defended the move and insisted it was a small price to pay to ensure the future health of smoking children. 'Stopping smoking is the best thing a young person can do to improve their future health and young people find it particularly hard to quit,' she said.

'Evidence shows that motivating a young person with a small cash incentive is the push they need to ask for help.' Children taking part in the scheme are also sent messages of encouragement from counsellors by text direct to their mobiles. Ms Lawson said the trust had already noticed a number of 'successful quitters' after offering pregnant teenagers £5 vouchers if they proved they had stopped smoking for more than 28 days.
'In all our incentive programmes for young people we provide support in a way that works for them whether this by text, email or in person,' she added

'If someone stops when they are young they will feel the benefits immediately and it saves the NHS millions of pounds as well as saving lives.'
In Brighton and Hove around in four in ten girls aged 14 smoke while 15 per cent of boys the same age do so, according to a health survey released last year.

Anti-tobacco group Ash claims around six in every 100 UK children aged 11 to 15 smoke cigarettes.

The campaign group welcomed the voucher scheme, with a spokesman insisting: 'Although it is encouraging that smoking rates are going down with youngsters the younger the person taking up smoking the higher the risk of disease such as lung cancer.

'It's very important to try and dissuade smokers and any investment to try and stop children smoking is welcome.' Brighton Pavilion MP David Lepper said he was in favour of the vouchers and said anything was worth a try. 'The figures show even more why I think we need stricter controls on the sale of tobacco products,' he said.

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I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

Here, kid, need a light?

The only news here is the bribery. Ten-year-olds were smoking when I was ten (back in the early 80s).

How about don't let the kid outside until they're 14? That might work.

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