Smoking ‘still a heavy burden on the NHS’
SMOKING continues to plague the Welsh NHS and currently contributes to one in six of all deaths in people under the age of 35, new figures reveal.
The Public Health Wales Observatory discovered that more than 5,000 deaths every year in Wales are attributable to smoking.
The majority of smoking-attributable deaths are associated with cancer, circulatory disease and respiratory disease.
Their figures also revealed that more than 26,000 hospital admissions every year are associated with smoking.
While fewer people in Wales are now taking up the habit compared to previous years, the publication shows that smoking continues to place a heavy burden on people’s health, their families and health services.
The latest Welsh Health Survey has shown that 19% of the adult population smoke, which is a 1% drop on the previous year.
Dr Julie Bishop, director of health improvement at Public Health Wales, said: “These new figures demonstrate the scale of harm that smoking continues to cause in Wales.
“We have come a long way in reducing smoking rates over recent years, but it is clear that we must not rest on our laurels.
“A new Tobacco Control Delivery Plan was recently launched by the Welsh Government, detailing a number of measures to help more smokers to quit and to prevent young people from taking up the habit.
“By showing how gains on these two fronts might affect the overall smoking rate, our new projection tool can support the planning of collective action in Wales towards achieving the target prevalence of 16% by 2020.”
The impact of deprivation remains a significant concern, according to public health experts.
Latest figures show that smoking-attributable deaths and hospital admissions are twice as high among those living in the most deprived areas of Wales as those in the least deprived areas.
Joseph Carter, Head of BLF Wales, described the figures in the report as “eye opening”.
He said: “It saddens us as a charity that there are still so many deaths attributed to smoking people in Wales.
“With the launch of the new Tobacco Control Delivery Plan last month, we have high hopes for the different measures discussed within it (in its attempt to reduce smoking prevalence in Wales even further).
“We are happy to work with the Welsh Government on the journey of reducing the amount of smokers in Wales, because we’re the only UK charity looking after the nation’s lungs.
“We want to make sure that one day everyone breathes clean air with healthy lungs.”
The Welsh Tobacco Control Delivery Plan outlines the government’s commitment to reduce the number of smokers in Wales to 16% by 2020 and is divided into four action areas:
Promoting leadership in tobacco control;
Reducing the uptake of smoking;
Reducing smoking prevalence levels;
Reducing exposure to secondhand smoke.
But unlike Public Health England, the Welsh Government did not recognise electronic vaping products in helping to reduce smoking rates.
Marc Michelsen, senior vice president of corporate affairs and communications at Fontem Ventures said: “As use of electronic vaping products in the UK has increased, smoking rates have fallen to the lowest levels on record.
“There is also increasing scientific evidence that vaping products are driving reduced cigarette consumption and smoking cessation even among those smokers not intending to quit or rejecting other support.
“It is therefore a missed opportunity that the Welsh Government – in stark contrast to Public Health England, and NHS Health Scotland, who today stated that ‘e-cigarettes are definitely less harmful than smoking’ – has failed to acknowledge this evidence and chosen not to support the use of electronic vaping products as a legitimate and effective way to achieve its goal of a tobacco-free society.”