Words that are meant to apply to a thorough investigation are applied to the mere sighting of what is not even hidden:
Despite smoking around the region’s hospitals and health centres being officially banned, we revealed that the practice remained widespread at the Royal Infirmary, with patients, their visitors and even NHS staff lighting up in clearly designated non-smoking areas, causing carcinogenic smoke to waft back into wards.We have no real need of press that describes the blatant non-observance of unenforceable laws as news, still less as an 'exposure', when stories are run about this issue on a regular basis all over the country. The only way to get people out of doorways is to provide somewhere more comfortable than a doorway, as many hospitals have learned (even if others keep trying to achieve the impossible).
When the BBC reports on the UK government's smoking cessation record, in what might as well have been lifted from a press release, Chris Snowdon steps forward with a more critical view, pointing out that the smoking cessation record is nowhere near the success it's claimed to be. Why can't the real newspapers do that kind of job?
1 comment:
Well lets look at the authors conflicts of interest, who produced this report.
Performance of English stop smoking services in first 10 years: analysis of service monitoring data.
Competing interests: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf (available on request from the corresponding author) and declare: all authors have support from NHS Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training (NCSCT) for the submitted work; RW is a director of the NCSCT, undertakes research and consultancy for companies that develop and manufacture smoking cessation medications (Pfizer, Johnson &Johnson, McNeil, GlaxoSmithKline, Nabi, Novartis, and Sanofi-Aventis), has a share of a patent for a novel nicotine delivery device, and is a trustee of QUIT, a charity that provides stop smoking support; MW has a share of a patent for a novel nicotine delivery device. EC previously worked at the English Department of Health as the delivery lead for tobacco control policy, has received travel funding, honorariums, and consultancy payments from manufacturers of smoking cessation products (Pfizer, Johnson &Johnson, McNeil, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, and Sanofi-Aventis), and receives royalties from a book on smoking cessation and a book on health promotion. AMcE is a director of the NCSCT, has received travel funding, honorariums, and consultancy payments from manufacturers of smoking cessation products (Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, and Novartis), receives payment for providing training to smoking cessation specialists, receives royalties from books on smoking cessation, and has a share in a patent of a nicotine delivery device; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.http://www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f4921
Greg Burrows
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