Smoking Harms Unborn Babies... Really?

Was surprised to see this smoking warning from the Australian Govt. on a pack of cigarettes. The warning reads,

"Smoking during pregnancy reduces the flow of blood in the placenta and limits the oxygen and nutrients that reach the growing baby. This increases the risk of miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth, complications during birth or the baby having a smaller brain and body."

But who cares? The Aussie Govt. sure as heck doesn't. Look at Victoria where they've removed the right of doctors to be able to choose to have nothing to do with abortions for conscience' sake, and have decriminalised abortion up to birth. Or Queensland where in 2007 alone, 19 babies over 20wks survived an abortion attempt but were left to die, refused life-saving help.

Hypocrites.

Lollies: Not Our Future

The Government has been running the Not Our Future campaign since 2006. It is a campaign especially targetted at youth, which stars celebrities giving youth good reasons why they should stop smoking - or never start. It consists of bus-stop adverts and... yes, you guessed it, another expensive-looking Flash website. I haven't been able to dig up any information regarding how much the Government is spending on this campaign, but it must be well into the millions of tax-payer's dollars.

Just like drinking coffee, sniffing glue and eating lollies, smoking - as we all know, is damaging to our health. Do we need the Govenment to spend our money to tell us this? All of the things I've just mentioned can be used in moderation and for their intended purpose, with minimal detriment to one's health. Staying up late at night can also be harmful to your health. Perhaps the Government should introduce legislation on when we sleep, and for how long. Exemptions could be made for people working night-shifts, but there would be monthly checks done to make sure that people were not taking advantage of this clause.

They seem to have a problem with cigarettes being sold next to the lollies (sweets). But where's the concern about lollies being sold next to the cigarettes?

This is a post I've had in the pipeline for a while. I could rave on for ages, but who likes to read long, drawn-out raves on random people's blogs? Not me!