Government aims to halve number of smokers by 2020
Last updated 03/02/2010 10:45:15
Government aims to halve number of smokers by 2020
A new government strategy aims to halve the number of smokers, from 21 to 10 per cent of the population by 2020.
The number of people smoking has fallen by a quarter in the past decade – just last year 337,000 people stopped smoking.
Under the new strategy, more smokers will be encouraged to get support from the NHS where professional help will be more accessible.
The vision for a smokefree future builds on the 1998 strategy ‘Smoking Kills'. Since then more than two million people have given up smoking with help from the NHS - striking picture warnings are now on tobacco packs, the age of sale for tobacco has been raised to 18 and virtually all enclosed public and work places are smokefree.
Research shows that seven out of ten smokers want to give up. This next push offers a radical vision for a smokefree future. It sets out several key commitments including stopping young people being recruited as smokers by cracking down on cheap illicit cigarettes and immediate investment in extra overseas officers to stop 200 million cigarettes entering the UK every year.
The Government says it will carefully consider the case for plain packaging, stopping the sale of tobacco from vending machines and protecting everyone, especially children, from the harms of second-hand smoke by promoting smokefree homes and cars and reviewing smokefree law.
This review will include, for example, whether to extend legislation from enclosed public places and workplaces to areas like entrances to buildings.
Health Secretary Andy Burnham said: "Most smokers start before they are 18, so we have to discourage children and young people from ever starting. Now that we've banned advertising and will soon see an end to attractive displays in shops, the only remaining method of advertising tobacco is the packaging. So we will carefully consider whether there is evidence for making tobacco companies use plain packets."
Although smoking rates are declining, more than 80,000 deaths attributed to smoking a year and it costs the NHS £2.7 billion a year.
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