"Research suggests..."

The BBC have started using the fakecharity article template again:

1. Kick off by quoting a bit of research 'suggesting' something or other:

Teenage smoking rates in England have dropped since the legal age for buying cigarettes rose from 16 to 18, research by University College London suggests. Researchers surveyed more than 1,000 teenagers aged 16 and 17 before and after the age rise in October 2007.

Well duh. It's illegal now, so some 16 or 17 year olds who smoke will simply not admit it.

2. Get a few rent-a-quotes from an appropriate fakecharity:

Jenny Fidler, who led the study and is based at Cancer Research UK's health behaviour research centre at University College London, said: "The new law looks to have helped reduce smoking prevalence among younger age groups. This is good news for the future health of this generation of young people and shows that tobacco policies can make a real difference."

So the research wasn't biased or skewed to try and get a particular result, then?

Jean King, Cancer Research UK's director of tobacco control, said "We need to do more to protect young people. We urge the government to prevent more lives being lost to an addiction that will kill half of all long term smokers."

She said putting tobacco out of sight in shops and removing cigarette vending machines would be a good place to start.

3. Finally, the most important element, and its presence here is most worrying (this element had been missing over the past few months), is for a government spokesman to agree that 'more must be done".

A Department of Health spokesman said they were in discussions across government on how best to progress to tackle smoking.

He added: "We welcome these findings as nearly all adults who smoke get hooked when they are young. Smoking is the biggest preventable cause of death in England, causing over 80,000 premature deaths in England each year."