WE HAVE A vision of a future without cancer. That’s why we fight tobacco with everything we’ve got. Smoking is the single biggest preventable cause of cancer in Ireland, so if we end smoking then as a country we will have delivered the single biggest blow to cancer possible.

The key is the next generation. It is possible to have a generation that doesn’t start smoking. How? To successfully protect them from the tactics of the tobacco industry which needs to recruit 50 new smokers a day to replace those who quit and those who die. The answer is plain packs.

January 11th last was the 50th anniversary of the US Surgeon General’s landmark report on smoking and health that has informed public health policy ever since. For the first time, this report linked smoking, lung cancer and a higher death rate......