THERE is no denying the fact that helping people to quit smoking will, in the long run, save the National Health Service huge amounts of money. For it is notoriously expensive to deal with smoking related illnesses such as strokes, cancer and heart ailments.
And that is why health bosses believe the £300 spent on each person approaching them for help to give up the habit is money well spent, particularly considering that 1,200 people die prematurely each year of smoking related ailments.
But the fact
remains that these are self inflicted conditions and people should be made to realise that they have brought their own symptoms upon themselves.
By all means help them quit the habit, but that particular carrot should be accompanied by a sturdy stick to enforce rules and regulations already in place to limit the availability of cigarettes. And it is clear where this is most prevalent considering that smoking in poor areas is more prevalent than in the affluent parts of the city.
Let us see some tough measures targeted at those selling cigarettes - and at youngsters tempted to embark on the pathway to an early grave.
Modern phrase for truly modern schoolFOR once, one of those trendy politically correct phrases makes sense. The headteacher at the new Yewlands Secondary doesn't think of it as a school but as 'a true 21st century learning environment'.
Such expressions tend to grate on many people's ears, but on this occasion it has to be said that there is a lot of merit in the phrase. For the new building certainly has a tremendous amount of appeal and style.
And among the most enthusiastic supporters of this transformation are the pupils themselves, who have become eager ambassadors for Yewlands, keen to sing its praises to anyone who will listen.
That alone marks a fundamental step in the right direction for any other school wishing to take on the mantle of becoming a truly '21st century learning environment'.
What do you think? Add your comments below.
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FeaturesMore Rotherham newsMore Doncaster newsMore Barnsley newsCheck out the very latest on South Yorkshire's roads - including live traffic cameras on Sheffield's commuter routes - with our Traffic sectionLatest sport. The full article contains 384 words and appears in Sheffield Star newspaper.
