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A smoke-free future

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A smoke-free future

Public health and pharmacy bodies are calling on the Government to introduce a range of measures to set the UK on ‘a path to a smoke-free future’ by 2035. Charlotte Rixon reports

Some 120 public health organisations, led by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), are urging the Government to impose an annual levy on tobacco companies as part of a five-year strategy to slash the smoking rate to five per cent in just two decades.

Saving money and lives

The Smoking Still Kills report suggests that the money raised from taxing tobacco companies could be used to fund mass media anti-smoking campaigns and improvements to stop smoking services, helping to save thousands of lives and drastically reduce NHS costs. Smoking costs the NHS around £2 billion each year, while a further £10.8 billion is spent on the wider costs to society, such as social care and sick leave.

However, cigarette manufacturers make more than £1 billion in profit in the UK alone, which means, argue the report authors, that they should be “forced to pay for the harms they cause”. “Investing in evidence-based measures that reduce smoking (such as stop smoking services) is highly cost-effective,” said Peter Kellner, chair of the report’s editorial board and president of YouGov. “Placing a levy on tobacco companies to fund such work is a win-win – saving both money and lives.”

Fighting health inequalities

Smoking Still Kills places a strong emphasis on the need to tackle health inequalities to ensure that “no one is left behind” in the drive to cut smoking figures. While 70,000 lives have been saved since the first Government strategy on tobacco, Smoking Kills, was published in 1998, ASH argues that the health gains have not been evenly spread out across society. New research from the charity has revealed that over 1.2 million children and three million adults live below the poverty line in households that smoke. However, if the Government was to adopt the five-year tobacco strategy outlined in the report, ASH believes that over half a million households could be lifted out of poverty.

Backing the document, Simon Gillespie, chief executive of the British Heart Foundation (BHF), said: “We need a comprehensive new strategy, sustained investment in tobacco control and strong political will to show we are serious about reducing the devastating damage that smoking causes.”

Supporting services

Coinciding with the launch of Smoking Still Kills, the PAGB has called for the Government to reverse cuts to local stop smoking services, following fears that they could fall by 50 per cent if action isn’t taken.

At the UK Nicotine & Smoking Cessation Conference in Manchester earlier this month, Professor Robert West, director of tobacco studies at University College London, warned that stop smoking services were in decline due to reductions in funding and access.

Echoing Professor West’s concerns, Donna Castle, PAGB director of public affairs and communications, said: “We are calling on national and local health policy makers to recognise the valuable contribution of stop smoking services and the need for sustained investment to continue to drive down smoking rates.”

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