Government reveals ambitions to make England smoke-free country by 2030
A new Green Paper which proposes a series of health measures – including tackling obesity – has taken a tough line against tobacco.
It states it is the Government’s ambition that England will be smoke-free in barely a decade.
It includes “an ultimatum for industry to make smoked tobacco obsolete by 2030, with smokers quitting or moving to reduced-risk products like e-cigarettes”.
Further tobacco proposals will be set out later.
The Green Paper, released late on Monday, says that although “traditional public health interventions have led to significant improvements in the nation’s health”, more needs to be done.
It continues: “Thanks to our concerted efforts on smoking, we now have one of the lowest smoking rates in Europe.
Yet, for the 14 per cent of adults who still smoke, it’s the main risk to health.
Smokers are disproportionately located in areas of high deprivation. In Blackpool, one in four pregnant women smoke. In Westminster, it’s one in 50.”
The paper adds that “obesity is a major health challenge that we’ve been less successful in tackling”.
It also says that providing clean air will continue to be challenging for the next decade.
But it says that access to mental health services has been improved.
On that subject it says: “In the 2020s, we need to work towards ‘parity of esteem’, not just for how conditions are treated, but also for how they are prevented.
“On dementia, we know ‘what’s good for your heart is also good for your head’.
A timely diagnosis also enables people with dementia to access the advice, information, care and support that can help them to live well with the condition, and to remain independent for as long as possible.”
Meanwhile, measures in the Green Paper include ensuring all smokers admitted to hospital are offered support to stop smoking.
And the Diabetes Prevention Programme will be doubled, it says.
Alcohol care teams are to be established in more areas.
And measures will be taken to help shift the health system away from treating illness, and towards preventing problems in the first place.
In 2007 England was one of the first countries to ban smoking in public places. It introduced plain packaging for cigarettes in 2016.
The Green Paper says: “Recently, the Government also published a tobacco control plan, which included the goal of reducing smoking rates to 12 per cent in adults by 2022.”
But it adds that for those who smoke the habit is the leading cause of ill-health and early death, saying: “That’s why the Government wants to finish the job.”
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