UK Government consultation re tobacco control

The ADAVB has long been an active partner with the Victorian QUIT campaign in promoting smoking cessation in the interests of improved oral and general health. In that context, similar efforts undertaken in other jurisdictions are always of interest.

The Cancer Reform Strategy 2007 announced the UK Government’s intention to consult on the next steps in tobacco control and the further regulation of tobacco products, and to consult with stakeholders on measures to reduce the significant harm to health caused by smoking for those who are addicted to nicotine and not able to quit altogether.

They describe their new consultation paper as the first step in developing a new national tobacco control strategy. It covers four main areas:

• Reducing smoking rates and health inequalities caused by smoking: including trends in smoking prevalence, regional patterns and health inequalities and tackling the supply of cheap illegal tobacco in our communities.
• Protecting children and young people from smoking: reducing young people’s access to tobacco, reducing exposure to tobacco promotion, and protecting children from secondhand smoke to prevent future generations suffering poor health caused by tobacco.
• Supporting smokers to quit: including NHS stop smoking support, increasing access to, and take-up of, quit services among high smoking prevalence groups, supporting young smokers to quit, supporting pregnant smokers to quit, and how best practice can be best shared.
• Helping those who cannot quit: considering the potential of a harm reduction approach in tobacco control to help people whose addiction to nicotine makes it extremely difficult to quit altogether.