Experts back pricing plan for tobacco
HEALTH experts are calling for minimum pricing for tobacco to cut smoking in poor communities.
A new report from 10 experts in the field claims tobacco must be more expensive and less freely available to help with smoking cessation.
More people in poorer areas smoke and so one idea for a national tobacco strategy is to price people out of being able to buy cigarettes.
The study was carried out by experts from the NHS and from Edinburgh University.
HEALTH experts have suggested a minimum price for tobacco to cut smoking in poorer parts of Scotland.
Further steps are needed to make tobacco more expensive and less available, according to a report bringing together the views of 10 specialists in the field.
The research highlighted that while the percentage of adults who smoke has dropped from 28 per cent in 2003 to 21 per cent, the proportion has remained static since 2013.
Smoking rates remain highest in poorer areas, with 35 per cent of adults in the least well off parts of Scotland smoking compared with 10 per cent in the most affluent.
A new national tobacco strategy could consider setting a minimum price for tobacco, the research said.
It comes after the Evening Times revealed earlier this month that NHSGGC spent £3,869,075 on interventions aimed at tackling smoking, physical activity, obesity and alcohol reduction – the most of any health board in Scotland.
Figures showed NHSGGC spent £1,900,000 on stop-smoking initiatives over 2015-2016, which resulted in 3,131 people giving up at a cost of £607 per person.
Other suggestions for cessation included creating incentives for retailers to not sell tobacco, raising the age for purchase to 21 or establishing a licensing system for shops.
The group of policy makers, practitioners and researchers also backed mass media campaigns focused on smoking cessation and second-hand smoke exposure.
Setting up smoke-free parks and playgrounds or “health cor- dons” around schools to ban sales of tobacco products could also be considered, they said.
The study was carried out by NHS Health Scotland and the Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy (SCPHRP) at the University of Edinburgh. Study co-author Dr Garth Reid, principal public health adviser at NHS Health Scotland, said: “Smoking causes over 10,000 deaths each year and is the biggest cause of preventable death in Scotland.
“But it’s where we are born and the conditions in which we live that influence the likelihood whether or not we smoke.
“Findings from this study highlight that changing the price and availability of tobacco could con- tribute to reducing health inequalities.”
Simon Clark, director of smokers’ pressure group Forest, described the report as part of a “middle class war on smoking” that was “patronising and deeply offensive”.
He said: “Tobacco is a legal product and if adults choose to smoke knowing the risks that choice must be respected. Making tobacco even more expensive would discriminate against those who are less well off.”