Notts: Council backs new ‘rotting flesh’ smoking TV advert

Notts Council Council has backed the new campaign led by Public Health England, which was launched this week on Monday 29th December.

The adverts show a hand-rolled cigarette with rotting flesh instead of tobacco, with the message that ‘smoking rots you from the inside out’. It follows evidence that many smokers are turning to roll-ups, wrongly convinced that they are less harmful than ‘normal’ cigarettes, according to experts.

Dr Chris Kenny, director of public health for Nottinghamshire County and Nottingham City, said: “We are trying to break down some preconceptions that some smokers have about the damage they could be doing to themselves.”

New figures show that half of smokers who only smoke roll-ups wrongly believe they are less harmful than manufactured cigarettes. Experts say that hand-rolled cigarettes are at least as hazardous as any other type of cigarette.

Smoking rates in Notts have dropped to 18.4 per cent, although there are areas where this figure is much higher.

Dr Kenny added: “We know that many people in Notts smoke roll up cigarettes, and that often people think that they are less damaging. In fact evidence shows that roll ups are at least as bad for your health as normal cigarettes.”

Professor Kevin Fenton, national director for health and wellbeing at PHE, said: “Most of the harm caused by smoking doesn’t become obvious until middle age but the invisible damage can start shockingly early.”