- John Radford/Alison Iliff
Minutes:
Alison Iliff, Public Health Specialist, presented a report on establishing a common understanding of tobacco control issues facing Rotherham. The report drew attention to:-
The Scale of the Challenge
- Each 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 started 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
Agreed:- (1) That the report be noted.
(2) That the Rotherham Tobacco Control Alliance produce an annual report setting out its priorities.