University of Vaasa - Vaasan yliopisto

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assistance was given by licensees, betting shop and casino managers. To meet and
talk with former addicts was even more complicated, but again assistance was
offered by those in the trade and individual members of Alcoholics Anonymous. This
does mean that the sample may not be representative all addicts, and this opens the
door to further research if this pilot study is considered worthwhile. The questions
centre around whether or not they perceive their situation to be a problem, and what,
if anything, they believe could have been done to discourage their activities. Clearly,
simple question and answer techniques would be inappropriate, and so each
individual interviewed must be treated separately and the questions developed
according to their responses.
Cowton (1998) has discussed the difficulty of obtaining the truth on occasions in
interviews. As Dalton and Metzger (1992 p. 207) have explained ‘virtually every
empirical enquiry of issues relevant to applied business ethics involves the asking of
questions that are sensitive, embarrassing, threatening, stigmatizing or
incriminating’. This means that the respondents had to be willing to speak openly, in
the interests of academic research. Almost always the answers seemed to be honest,
but there may well have been occasions when exaggeration or bashfulness prevailed.
Such comments have been omitted when they were recognised.
Tobacco
Hastings and Aitken (1995 p. 6) have pointed out that 'within the confines of doubt
that will always exist in social scientific research, it has now been accepted that
tobacco advertising does influence children's smoking behaviour', and advertising
was prohibited. Work undertaken by Sargent et al (2000) and MacFadyen et al (2001)
helped influence the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002.
As far as the tobacco companies are concerned, the best customer is the young
customer, as he or she will have a life-time of smoking ahead of them. Dijk et al.
(2007) in their study in the Netherlands showed that children smoke to be 'cool' and
because they are curious about the habit. Once they have started, as Wolburg (2008 p.
73) has noted, 'the best smoking cessation efforts in the world will not change the
addictive nature of the product'. Wiium and Wold (2006), in their study in Norway,
discovered that the home environment is a great influence on smoking behaviour in
children. This would suggest that the best way to prevent children from starting to
smoke is to educate them from an early age, especially within their family circles.
Further legislation remains a distinct possibility.
It is relatively easy to find smokers. Some are known to us personally, and others can
be found outside buildings, particularly public houses and places of work. A simple
enquiry will produce reformed smokers. Thus, a good sample was available. In this
study, fifty smokers of various ages and both sexes were surveyed. They all claimed
to use about twenty cigarettes a day. All were aware of the health problems
associated with smoking, but none expressed any concern. None were interested in
stopping. All agreed that they had initially been attracted by the fact that cigarettes
appeared grown up, and many had watched their parents smoke. Over half of the