Smoking Prevalence in England Falls to Historic Low

Source from:  The Information Daily 02/12/2014

Smoking prevalence in England has fallen below 20 per cent for the first time in 80 years, latest figures reveal.

According to researchers at University College London in a letter to the BMJ, the prevalence of smoking in a representative sample of 22,167 adults in 2013 was 19.3 per cent.

"Much is still to be done, particularly on the social gradient in smoking, which contributes greatly to health inequalities", the researchers write.

However, they say that breaking the 20 per cent barrier "will motivate smoking cessation efforts across the country, including making more use of [the] stop smoking services".

Senior Research Fellow Jamie Brown and Professor of Health Psychology Robert West explain that smoking was rare at the start of the 20th century.

However, it increased relentlessly until the publication of 'Smoking and Health' in 1962, by which time over 70 per cent of men and 40 per cent of women smoked.

The decline in prevalence started in the 1970s and has since averaged a 0.6 per cent decrease every year, with 2013 being slightly higher at 0.8 per cent.

In a separate piece in the BMJ this week, Ruth Malone and colleagues at the University of California say it is essential for the UK "to extend its focus beyond tobacco control to plan a tobacco free future".

They argue that there is "a major and increasingly inexplicable lack of congruence between the way cigarettes are regulated and the regulation of many other dangerous products" but argue "too many public health professionals remain fearful of even suggesting that to end the epidemic these products should, at some point, no longer be easy to buy".

In a forthcoming report commissioned by Cancer Research UK they recommend that the UK "undertake a serious effort to bring to an end the UK tobacco disease epidemic".

The report will show that, even if uptake of smoking entirely ceased, and cessation increased beyond any targets reached to date, there would still be several decades of high healthcare costs attributable to smoking.

The report will also suggest that the UK, while a leader in cessation, lags behind other nations in the use of mass media to "denormalise" the tobacco industry and its products.

The scientists point to research indicating that the public might be more supportive of a tobacco endgame than is generally thought.

They conclude: "if the public health sector, including government, does not begin the endgame conversation, no one else will. For the sake of future generations we should start now". Enditem