Chief medical officer Chris Whitty issues message to anyone opposed to smoking ban
Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty issues message to anyone opposed to smoking banBreakfast, BBC
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00:00What do you say to any MPs who aren't going to support this today?
00:04Well I think there are many MPs who will obviously be thinking what they want to do
00:09and leaving aside the health damage which is extraordinary, the economic damage which is, as you said in your lead up, substantial
00:17the thing I want people to think about really is the fact that people are trapped in smoking at a very young age
00:23and once they become addicted their choice is taken away
00:27so if you're in favour of choice you should be against something which takes away people's choices
00:32the great majority of smokers wish they'd never started but now they're in trouble
00:37and if I can just give one anecdote on this, when I was a junior doctor doing surgery
00:43I remember the tragedy of seeing people whose legs had to be cut off because of the smoking that had damaged their arteries
00:50outside the hospital weeping as they lit up because they were trapped by addiction
00:55that is not choice