The coalition is planning "radical" action to curb teenage smoking, ban cheap alcohol and encourage mothers to breastfeed at work, the health secretary said today.

Andrew Lansley, who is due to publish a public health white paper this week, confirmed that the government was preparing a range of interventions intended to reduce inequalities. But he came under fire from the Tory right for attempting to "micro-manage" people's lives.

Lansley confirmed that the government would be:

• Consulting on the introduction of plain packaging for cigarettes

• Banning low-cost alcohol sales

• Piloting the introduction of workplace breastfeeding areas by private employers.

The health secretary defended the government's approach, insisting that while it wanted to avoid over-regulation, sometimes state intervention was appropriate for the sake of people's health.

He told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show: "We have tried a lot of things and we do need occasionally to intervene. But more than that we need to support people. Especially some of the poorest in our society need to have the greatest support because health inequalities are too wide.

"We need to deliver improvements in the health of the poorest in this country the fastest."

Lansley said that smoking-related illnesses accounted for 80,000 deaths a year. "We have to treat smoking as a major public health issue. We have to reduce the extent to which young people start smoking.

"One of the issues is the extent to which display of cigarettes and brands does draw young people into smoking in the first place. This something were are going to consult on."

He said that he also wanted to improve breastfeeding rates, with dedicated areas in the workplace where mothers can breastfeed and store expressed milk, and greater flexibility over when they can take their breaks.

"I think that employers recognise that they have a social responsibility as well and that is what we are working on," he said. "Our breastfeeding rate in this country is among the lowest in Europe. About eight weeks after babies are born, the breastfeeding rate is 46% and it should be higher than that. So we do need to support mothers to breastfeed."

But the former Tory minister Ann Widdecombe said that this was not the approach which she expected from a Conservative-led government.

"I could absolutely weep," she told the Andrew Marr Show. "Now we have got the state actually saying to employers in a time of recession you must provide paid breaks, paid facilities, a special fridge for expressed milk and goodness knows what else for women returning to work who have decided, on their responsibility presumably, to have a child.

"It is not appropriate for the state to micro-manage our lives as they are doing."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/ ... lcohol-ban

Ffs, knee-jerk react much? Not one of those concepts bears much scrutiny, nor I suspect, evidence to back them up when considering them...

To quote the greatest philosopher of our time;

I can understand the premise but it still could mean that alcohol been sold just to cover the taxes, and effectively be given free.

As to the rest they should come in after they have solved the unemployment problem. At that point companies will probably have to do it anyway to retain staff without legislation.