HC Deb 16 June 1958 vol 589 cc677-9
50. Mr. Hastings

asked the Minister of Health if he will undertake a pilot inquiry to ascertain what percentage of smokers starts smoking regularly during each year of age between 12 and 20.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health (Mr. Richard Thompson)

My right hon. and learned Friend does not think there is a need for such a specialised inquiry since there is already a good deal of information published or being collected about the ages at which persons start to smoke regularly.

Mr. Hastings

Does not the Minister feel that as his right hon. Friend passed on to the local authorities the distribution of information about the possible relationship between smoking and cancer of the lung and other diseases, they should at least be given information as to what class of people they must try to influence most?

Mr. Thompson

Yes, Sir. Various small-scale inquiries have been made and most of them have been published. They show that the large majority of smokers have begun to smoke by the age of 20. Although estimates vary, a significant proportion have begun to smoke before the age of 16.

51. Mr. Hastings

asked the Minister of Health if he will institute a pilot inquiry as to the physiological and sociological effects of giving up smoking by those who have smoked not less than 20 cigarettes a day for at least 20 years.

Mr. Thompson

If the hon. Member would care to write to my right hon. and learned Friend elaborating his suggestions, he will gladly bring them to the notice of bodies which might be prepared to consider the value of such an inquiry.

Mr. Hastings

Does not the Minister agree that people who have smoked for many years before giving up this habit, as they are sometimes urged to do for the sake of their health, should know what is involved in this? Is not that an important question with which everybody ought to be made familiar?

Mr. Thompson

Yes, Sir, but of course the Ministry is not equipped to undertake an inquiry of this sort. There are other bodies which might do so if the inquiry were to be pursued. I have in mind the Medical Research Council or the British Empire Cancer Campaign.

Dr. Summerskill

Is not the hon. Member aware that this is a matter for the Minister of Health? In view of the very serious information we have had about cancer of the lung, could he tell the House whether any action has been taken in schools with the view to bringing this matter to the notice of boys under 20?

Mr. Thompson

The whole object of our propaganda in this matter is to discourage people from acquiring the habit rather than to cure them when, unhappily, they already have it