Agenda item

Alison Iliff, Public Health Specialist, presented the Tobacco Bulletins for July and September, 2011, which summarised the latest tobacco control activity within Rotherham, national and international news related to tobacco and smoking and outlined any relevant training and development opportunities.

 

A powerpoint presentation was also given as follows:-

 

Scale of the Challenge

-        Early year smoking caused the greatest number of preventable deaths – 81,400

-        The decline in smoking rates had stalled

-        National children’s rates of smoking (age 11-15)

-        Smoking in pregnancy

-        Smoking cost the local economy millions every year (£71.9M in Rotherham)

-        The annual cost of smoking to smokers (compared to additional costs to our community) – each year, smokers in Rotherham spent approximately £81.5M on tobacco product contributing roughly £62.1M in duty to the Exchequer.  This meant that there was an annual funding shortfall of £9.8M in this area

 

Smoking Attitudes and Behaviours

-        Children not adults start smoking – 90% of smokers started before the age of 19

-        Children were 3 times as likely to start smoking if their parents smoked

-        The majority of children who smoked got their cigarettes from a ‘friend’

-        The poorer you were the more likely you were to smoke

-        Smoking was 1 of the greatest causes of health inequalities

-        Poorer smokers were as likely to want to quit and try to quit but half as likely to succeed

-        Smokefree environments enjoyed increasing public support.

 

Tobacco Control and Local Authority Role

-        The World Bank has developed a ‘6 strand’ strategy for reducing tobacco use:-

1.      stopping the promotion of tobacco

2.      making tobacco less affordable

3.      effective regulation of tobacco products

4.      helping tobacco users to quit

5.      reducing exposure to secondhand smoke

6.      effective communication for tobacco control

 

Significant and Growling Role for Local Authorities

-        Local Authority responsibilities included enforcement on:

Age of Sale

‘Smokefree’ Places

Smuggled and counterfeit tobacco

Advertising ban

From 2013 Local Authorities would take on responsibility to commission services to motivate and support smokers to quit their habit

 

Working Together for Better Health

-        Local Government including Police and Fire

-        Local Health Services

-        Organisations that work across neighbouring localities within a region

-        Employers

-        Voluntary sector organisations

-        Smokers particularly groups with high rates of smoking e.g. routine and manual smokers

 

Benefits of Working across Local Boundaries

-        Marketing and mass media – to ensure ‘health messages’ were supportive, clear and do not conflict

-        Tackling smuggling – criminal gangs do not pay heed to local government boundaries

-        Surveys, research and data collection – cost savings can be had from collectively commissioning research and surveys and sharing the results

 

Challenges for Rotherham

-        Smoking prevalence not declining (although data may not be reliable)

-        Smoking in pregnancy was declining, but was still much higher than the national and regional average

-        Understanding the apparent increase in young smokers and implementing further programmes to tackle youth smoking

-        Cheap and illicit tobacco – continuing availability undermined other tobacco control activity

 

Key Messages

-        Local authorities had a key and important role to play – the NHS alone could not reduce smoking rates

-        Smoking was the single biggest preventable cause of health inequalities – reducing rates would bring general improvements in health and cost savings in other areas

-        To reduce smoking there was a need to increase the number of quit attempts and the success of each attempt – the poorest smokers should be targeted to narrow the gap in life expectancy between the richest and poorest and improve the health of the poorest fastest

 

Discussion ensued on the presentation with the following issues raised:-

 

-        The latest Lifestyle Survey statistics showed an increase in the number of children smoking

Following the meeting it was established that it was a 10% increase on last year and against national trends

-        In the last 6 months, Rotherham Trading Standards had:-

o       Undertaken 20 individual test purchases with regard to the sale of tobacco to children from retail premises which had resulted in no failures.  However, the Lifestyle Survey stated that 55% of young people got their cigarettes from shops

o       Seized a total 44,160 illegal cigarettes (counterfeit or smuggled) from retail outlets and private addresses – this was over 2,200 packs

o       Seized 10.4 kgs of illegal handrolling tobacco (counterfeit or smuggled) from retail outlets and private addresses – over 800 packs

o       Seized 0.5 kg of illegal handrolling tobacco from an individual selling the product in the town centre – 40 packs

-        The Trading Standards Team was now temporarily reduced in size due to some recent voluntary early release applications.  However, there were plans to strengthen the Team shortly by way of a restructure. 

-        Tackling the illegal supply and sale of tobacco would remain a key priority for Rotherham

-        The resources used to stop adults from smoking was not cost effective and should be concentrated on young people and pregnant women

-        At the moment the national guidance was the 4 week “Quit” programme.  However, the Tobacco Control Paper spoke about different routes

-        There was little evidence to support the Quit programme for young people being successful.  The primary focus of Tobacco Control was prevention rather than helping a young person quit

-        There were a whole range of issues beyond what could be done locally such as images in the media and the desire of young people to copy celebrities

-        Unclear message about tobacco unlike those of alcohol and drugs

-        The Rotherham Titans had done a lot of work around the issue

-        There was close work with the Healthy Schools Team who liaised with schools directly.  All schools had a Smoke Free Policy but the big problem was when children left school premises to walk home and no longer the school’s responsibility

 

The draft lifestyle survey had an error stating there were 15% not 10% current smokers. They also included young people who smoked monthly in this figure. The comparative figure is regular smokers (weekly and daily smokers), which was actually 8%, the same as 2010. However, this is still 3 percentage points higher than the England average in 2010.

 

The Rotherham Tobacco Control Alliance had a meeting on 20th October.  The action plan would be considered with a further report submitted to the Cabinet Member.

 

Resolved:-  (1)  That the bulletin and powerpoint presentation be noted.

 

(2)  That the attention of the Children’s Board be drawn to the increase in the number of children smoking.

 

(3)  That it be noted that the Cabinet Member was to Chair the Rotherham Tobacco Control Alliance.