Soaps criticised over smoking scenes

Coronation Street and EastEnders have been criticised for failing to show the consequences of smoking.

Anti-smoking campaigners Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation have claimed that heavy smokers like Weatherfield's Deirdre Barlow (Anne Kirkbride) and Walford's Dot Cotton (June Brown) are sending out the wrong messages to viewers.

ASH's Amanda Sandford has now called on both soaps to introduce lung cancer storylines in order to properly educate fans about the dangers of cigarettes.

"The level of smoking on-screen is a cause for serious concern and a message needs to be sent out to the younger audience regarding the consequences," Sandford told the Daily Star Sunday.

"For Dot and Deirdre to get something like lung cancer would have a massive effect on the audience. The government should be leaning on shows like this."

Meanwhile, the Roy Castle Foundation's chief executive Dr. Rosemary Gillespie has suggested that smoking should be reserved for soap villains only.

"Soaps used to depict characters that were shady, or the annoying gossip types, as the ones that smoked," she explained. "Producers seem to be confused about smoking and are sending out the wrong messages to viewers."

An ITV spokesman said: "Today is a democratic age and everyone is entitled to their own views regarding TV shows. But the producers would only introduce a storyline about smoking if it suited the character and would benefit the show."

A spokesman for EastEnders insisted that there are "hardly any" characters who smoke on the programme.