The First Smoke-Free Generation is Coming

A new report by the Department of Health lays out an ambitious plan to create a generation of non-smokers. “Towards a smoke-free generation” says that despite the UK reaching its lowest smoking rate since records began, at 15.5% of the adult population, there are still 7.3 million adult smokers and more than 200 people dying each day from smoking-related illnesses.

The report’s priorities for achieving that smoke-free generation are to cut the number of young smokers, reduce smoking in pregnancy, and discourage smoking among the poor and people with mental health problems.

Young Smokers

As most smokers take up the habit as teenagers a key part of the battle will be fought out among the young, who are often influenced by older role models. A 2014 NHS survey of smoking, drinking and drug use among 6,173 secondary school pupils aged 11 to 15 found that 82% of those who regularly smoked had a family member who smoked. Some 77% of smokers aged 16 to 24 had begun smoking before the age of 18.

“Discouraging young people from smoking remains a priority, which is why we want to reduce the prevalence of 15-year-olds who regularly smoke to 3% or less by the end of 2022,” said the new Department of Health report. “However, 32% of smokers aged 16-24 started when they were 16 or 17. Therefore as smoking prevalence in 15-year-olds continues to decline, we will also review the data on 16 and 17-year-olds to help inform our understanding of the trends in smoking amongst young people.”

The report found that laws to prevent shops from selling tobacco to underage customers are not working as 46% of smokers aged 11 to 15 in 2014 regularly bought their cigarettes in shops. A disappointing 42% of pupils who had tried to buy cigarettes in shops said they had always succeeded.

Economy

Besides the obvious health benefits of reducing smoking the economic savings to the UK will be profound when smoking rates come down further. According to the Health Department’s calculations smoking costs the economy more than £11 billion a year. That includes £2.5b from the NHS, £5.3b from employers in sick days and smoking breaks, £4.1b through the burden of people who cannot contribute to the economy because of death or illness and an estimated £760m on adult social care services.

Quitting through E-Cigarettes

The report placed great emphasis on electronic cigarettes as a valuable quitting-aid, marking a considerable shift from a few years ago when the lack of regulation of these new products meant they were treated with concern. The Department of Health now says it will “monitor the impact of regulation and policy on e-cigarettes and novel tobacco products in England, including evidence on safety, uptake, health impact and effectiveness of these products as smoking cessation aids to inform our actions on regulating their use.”

Public Health England will update this information until the end of the Parliament in 2022 and use it to inform public campaigns highlighting the “relative safety” of e-cigarettes compared to traditional cigarettes.

by Stewart Vickers

 

 

 

The post The First Smoke-Free Generation is Coming appeared first on Felix Magazine.