CAROLINE JONES

COLUMNIST

LAST week, official statistics revealed that just over 3% of Welsh smokers accessed the Welsh Government’s stop smoking service – well short of the government’s goal to treat 5% of smokers.

Smoking is one of the biggest killers in Wales, which is why it’s important to tackle smoking prevalence.

The Welsh Government has had some success. Wales was first to introduce a smoking ban in public places, which has helped reduce the number of smokers from nearly a quarter of the adult population to around 19% in the 10 years since the ban’s introduction.

However, over the past few years the numbers have remained stubbornly high, especially among Wales’ most deprived.

The Welsh Government has a target to reduce smoking to around one in six of Wales’ adult population by 2020.

Unfortunately, if we rely solely upon NHS stop smoking services, we won’t achieve the government’s target of reducing the number of adult smokers and preventing almost one in six adults dying from smoking-related harm.

Across the border, Public Health England is in favour of encouraging smokers to switch to e-cigarettes, which are much safer and proven to be more effective than over-the-counter smoking cessation aids.

Public Health England is also seeking to get some e-cigarettes licensed as medicines so they can be offered on prescription.

Unfortunately, the Welsh Government is anti-vaping and treats e-cigarettes like tobacco products.

It has sought to ban vaping in public places and force vapers to share smoking shelters with tobacco smokers.

The reason we banned smoking in public places was because of the harms of second-hand smoke; it’s therefore perverse that we would expose vapers to those dangers.

If we are to have any hope of cutting the 5,000 or so smokingrelated deaths we see in Wales each year, then we have to use every available tool.

Economic sanctions haven’t worked, health education hasn’t worked, it’s now time to look at alternatives.

I urge the Welsh Government to reconsider its position on e-cigarettes and to promote them as a safer alternative as it rolls out its public health messaging for “Stoptober”.

■ Caroline Jones is Ukip’s health spokeswoman