WITHOUT for a minute wishing to diminish the significance of the current coronavirus crisis, the economic and societal risks it presents and the impact the virus is having on families across Scotland and beyond, I do find it interesting and insightful to note how its consequences in general and its death toll in particular compare with other known but accepted (and arguably acceptable) causes of death.
In the UK, according to official NHS figures, an estimated 78,000 premature deaths are caused each year by smoking, approximately 10,000 of those here in Scotland.
And, in 2016, according to Alcohol Change UK, there were almost 10,000 "alcohol-related" deaths in the UK and 7,551 "alcohol-specific" deaths in 2018, although, Scotland’s "alcohol-specific" death rate was 21 per cent lower in 2017 than in 2001.
Meanwhile, the Royal Colleges of Paediatrics and Physicians both report that around 40,000 people in the UK die prematurely every year from the direct effects of air pollution, whilst, according to the ONS, 1,784 people died in road traffic accidents in the UK in 2018.
My point is that, over time, we, as individuals and as communities, society at large and our governments have learned to tolerate such death on a scale that Covid-19 – even in its worst predicted manifestation – would be politically and socially unacceptable.
But, those other largely avoidable fatalities which result from actions members of society knowingly and willingly take are almost exactly double the worst-case coronavirus UK deaths, 66,000 estimated by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
Yet sales of fags, booze and motor vehicles are not banned, we, and the economy are not placed in lockdown to prevent us from purchasing and using these potentially lethal products; in fact, the Government derives massive tax revenues from them, perhaps explaining why – in part at least – they and covid-19 are treated quite differently.
And maybe it’s a case of "the devil you know" and a fear of the unknown that cause us to wantonly kill ourselves in such alarming numbers each year, that society and governments would consider intolerable and unimaginable if attributed to that unpredictable, ubiquitous, nebulous, unseen but deadly microscopic entity that has literally put the fear of death up us all.
I saw recent news footage, which perhaps encapsulated the known / accepted, unknown / unacceptable, invisible and intangible risk hypothesis, that of a middle-aged man in Glasgow tugging his face mask aside to take a deep and potentially deadly drag on his cigarette.
Mike Wilson, Longniddry.
DAVID Campbell (Letters, April 9), redefining selfishness, argues for the right to fill his lungs with smoke and carcinogens on the basis that tobacco is taxed, therefore the NHS can afford to treat him when he succumbs to the ill effects of his behaviour.
Smoking damages the lungs. There is no debate. Maybe someone needs to ask how many “underlying conditions” are the result of smoking, or indeed the number of Covid-19 casualties “with no underlying conditions” who were previously smokers?
John Dunlop, Ayr.
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