The Future of Tobacco Control

1
The Future of Tobacco Control

• David Taylor MP
• Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking
  Health

2
Four Key Areas(from DH Consultation Document)

• Reducing smoking rates and health inequalities
  caused by smoking
• Protecting children and young people from smoking
• Helping smokers to quit
• Helping those who cant quit

3
Campaign Aims(Smokefree Action Coalition)

• Action on key areas
• Early legislation to protect children
• Support harm reduction principle
• More help for quitters
• Pan-Government tobacco control strategy

4
Likely Legislation?

• Health Bill in Queens Speech Autumn 2008?
• Remove vending machines (LIKELY)
• End point of sale display (LIKELY)
• Ban packs of 10 (POSSIBLE needs more evidence?)
• Plain packaging (UNLIKELY needs more
  advocates?)

5
Public Support Legislation
(Survey for ASH by YouGov February 2008)
6
Campaign Theme

• Protection of children dont pass on a killer
  habit to the next generation
• 80 of smokers start before their 19th birthday
• Young people who live with adult smokers are much
  more likely to start more adult quitters mean
  fewer young smokers

7
Age and Smoking(DH Consultation Document)
8
Protection of Children

• 78 of 11-15 year old smokers buy from shops
• 17 of 11-15 year old smokers source from vending
  machines (Fig 10 Consultation Document)
• Plain packaging makes cigarettes less attractive

9
Point of Sale Hooking Kids

• Since ban on tobacco advertising, displays at
  point of sale are main route for tobacco
  promotion
• Displays in shops make it harder for smokers to
  quit and encourage young people to start
• California survey of 2,000 students aged 1114
  years - exposure to tobacco marketing in
  convenience stores associated with 50 increase
  in odds of ever smoking (Pierce J et al JAMA)

10
Helping smokers ready to quit

• NHS stop smoking services now allocated 56 a
  year about 177 a quitter
• AIM Commit Government and Opposition parties to
  increase current spending on cessation services

(Survey for ASH by YouGov February 2008)
11
Helping smokers who arent ready to quit

• Long-term use of medicinal pure nicotine
  products
• Nicotine addicts you
• Smoking kills you

• Answers
• Allows a hard-core group of addicts to make
  healthier choices
• Protects children from SHS
• Half-way house to quitting

• Question
• Wont this encourage addiction?

12
The aims of Harm Reduction

• Ever tougher regulation of smoked product
• Reduce tobacco smoking below 5
• Replace smoking with NRT type products
• Big cuts in number of smokers, and in deaths and
  illness from smoking

13
A coordinated strategy

• New tough targets on prevalence reduction
• Increase spending on social marketing campaigns
• Plan tax policy to fit public health targets
  high prices remain single most effective lever to
  cut smoking rates
• Crackdown on smuggling cross border movements
  undermine tax policy

14
Health Inequalities

• Smoking accounts for 50 of the difference in
  life expectancy between the richest and poorest
  in society
• The least affluent never-smokers have much better
  survival than even the most affluent smokers.
• Even if the socio-economic circumstances of less
  well-off smokers improve, their health gain is
  likely to be minimal if they continue to smoke
  (Gruer et al 2007)

15
Holding us to It

• More than 57,000 responses to smokefree
  consultation
• Campaign aim this time 30,000 responses backing
  further action political focus on display,
  vending machines, packaging
• Its down to you your work will provide evidence
  of strong support across England

16
Help with responses

• Draft responses (short long) at
  www.smokefreeaction.org.uk