Scottish health minister Andy Kerr has accused supermodel Kate Moss of portraying an image to teens that smoking is a cool thing to do.
He blamed Kate of being blase and uncaring about smoking in public. He was quoted saying,
I would ask her to understand the impact she’s having on young people’s lives. I don’t want to sound like an old fuddy-duddy but iconic figures set examples and sometimes these examples are inappropriate. I would want people to look at their behavior and ensure that they’re not setting what is a very dangerous example.
Kerr said that there was age-old evidence to prove that smoking habits of pop stars, rock stars, actors and models has always had a deep impact on younger generations. The health minister even offered to extend help for her smoking addiction. He said,
I am happy, if she’s ever in Scotland that she’ll get good smoking cessation advice when she’s here. But when she’s not, I would ask her to refrain in terms of public smoking.
Celebrities have always known to have deep impact on the society, when it comes to fashion and trends. However, smoking is something very personal and banning any celebrity from doing it is not really justified. One should rather go about educating kids about the ill effects of the habit.
Via Vogue
