RESEARCH PAPER
Ensuring smokers are adequately informed: reflections on consumer rights, manufacturer responsibilities, and policy implications
1 School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia;
2 VicHealth Centre for Tobacco Control, The Cancer Council Victoria, Victoria, Australia
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Professor Simon Chapman
School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Building A27, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; simonchapman{at}health.usyd.edu.au
The right to information is a fundamental consumer value. Following the advent of health warnings, the tobacco industry has repeatedly asserted that smokers are fully informed of the risks they take, while evidence demonstrates widespread superficial levels of awareness and understanding. There remains much that tobacco companies could do to fulfil their responsibilities to inform smokers. We explore issues involved in the meaning of "adequately informed" smoking and discuss some of the key policy and regulatory implications. We use the idea of a smoker licensing schemeunder which it would be illegal to sell to smokers who had not demonstrated an adequate level of awarenessas a device to explore some of these issues. We also explore some of the difficulties that addiction poses for the notion that smokers might ever voluntarily assume the risks of smoking.
Keywords: tobacco; smoking; licensing; addiction
![]()
CiteULike
Complore
Connotea
Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Technorati What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Borland, R, Wilson, N, Fong, G T, Hammond, D, Cummings, K M, Yong, H-H, Hosking, W, Hastings, G, Thrasher, J, McNeill, A
(2009). Impact of graphic and text warnings on cigarette packs: findings from four countries over five years. Tobacco Control
18: 358-364
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Carter, S. M, Chapman, S.
(2006). Smokers and non-smokers talk about regulatory options in tobacco control.. Tobacco Control
15: 398-404
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Fox, B J
(2005). Framing tobacco control efforts within an ethical context. Tobacco Control
14: ii38-ii44
[Abstract] [Full Text]
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
