Can We Get Below 20%?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20780577
Looks to me like we've reached the hard core that are too addicted to give up. I have only ever met a couple of people who don't want to give up, I presume they just can't. It still disturbs me that school kids are taking up the habit, so are we ever going to crack the 20% barrier?

[237SJ]

I wonder if the "hard core" are immigrants. And I`m not immigrant bashing it`s just that some cultures do smoke more than others (ever been to China)? There are quite a few Eastern European workmen around here and they do seem to smoke quite a bit. That might account for why the reduction in smokers has come to a plateau.

[youngmafbog]

Unless some serious prosecutions are carried out school kids will continue to take it up.

But I doubt that will happen.

[mikey4444]

In the course of my job, I work in social housing estates all over South Wales. In Wales only about 23% of adults now smoke, according to the Welsh Health Survey. But that percentage rises dramatically when measured amongst poor, disadvantaged people. When I deal with educated people, in full employment, the percentage rapidly drops way below 23%.

The rate of quitting over the last 20-30 years has been very much slower amongst the first group, then the second. Its all down to nurture, not nature.
When kids are growing up and most of the adults around them smoke, the chances are that they will smoke as well. There are kids not yet born on the Gurnos Estate today that will be smokers in about 15 years time, and they in turn will teach their kids to smoke as well. Its a vicious circle.

Its often been said that being poor makes you smoke but that is only half the story. Smoking is a major cause of poverty amongst the poor and disadvantaged. If your only source of income is the JSA, its not difficult to spend half of this, and more each week, just on cigarettes.

I am not really sure what the answer is to this situation. The educational approach has worked with the mid and high social classes but it really hasn't been effective in other lower socioeconomic groups. I guess we must start with children, but I have seen a growing number of kids using these new E-Cigarettes, on their walk home from school of an afternoon, and that must be worrying for the health authorites.

[mikey4444]

Just seen this on the BBC news feed :::

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26865693

A representative from "Forest", the pro-smoking and pro-lung cancer group were desperately trying to put a brave face on this at lunch time on World at One. But its difficult to take seriously, an organization that is funded by the tobacco industry, an industry that must continue to recruit new smokers to replace the millions that are killed by the product that the industry makes it money from. And most of those new recruits are adults, as few people take up smoking in the mid-30's or 40's.

The Minister, Jane Ellison should be praised for biting the bullet and moving ahead with some firm action. The tobacco industry will moan and whinge, just as they always do but the Government needs to stand firm.

[redman41]

Daft as it sounds but I'd still be Smoking now but for my Lung Cancer.
Had 3" Tumour removed last Year, thankfully the Op was a success....
Might be a bad and 'filthy' habit but I enjoyed a Fag

[mikey4444]

It sounds as if you have been very lucky redman !

Both my parents died of lung cancer. My Mum was only 63, which is far too early to go. She had 3 grandchildren and 1 great-grandchild that she never saw, and more importantly, they never saw her, which is an even bigger tragedy.

[sandyRoe]

My old mum died of lung cancer and the McMillan nurse who came to see her was a smoker. Getting the numbers of people who smoke down can't be just a matter of education. Though I don't know what it would take.

[ummmm]

You see loads of nurses smoking outside the hospital. I used to live next door to a doctor and he always had a fag in his hand.

[redman41]

It would be interesting to know how much exactly do the Govt rake in from Tobacco Tax.
If in the unlikely event Cigarette smoking was wiped out completely, what would the Govt do to replace the money lost in Cigarette/Cigar/Pipe Tobacco duty.
Where would the Tax burden fall ?? I hate to think

[ToraToraTora]

I come from a family of 6 kids, my parents and all my siblings smoked. I can from a very early age remember being disgusted by smoking, my mum was convinced I'd start like all the other kids, I knew I would not ever smoke. My dad gave up and my sister gave up recently but my mum just could not. Sad but I can remember my mums many attempts to give up, the many innevitable failures, many of which ended simply by my dad who'd had enough suffering, saying, "for gawd sake have a fag"! The house reeked all the time, I cannot imagine people smoking in the house now. My mum died of lung cancer at age 69 having started at 10years old and barely a smoke free day for nearly 60 years.

[dave50]

If the amount of tax paid by smokers is more than the cost of treating their resulting illnesses then there is no problem, let them get on with it.

[ToraToraTora]

ah didn't think it would take long before the mythology came along.

Smoking adds nothing to the treasury if you add all the costs, not just the health figures.

[mikey4444]

It needs to start with the children sandy.

Prosecute those corner shops that sell fags to kids. Not just with a small fine but with a removal of their licence to sell tobacco products. Ditto with those new-fangled e-cigarette things. Plain paper packaging, and a ban on advertising the e-things would help.

Something I have thought about for ages is to try to get the big supermarkets to voluntarily stop selling cigarettes. I know this would be a big step but the propaganda involved would be priceless. Its not as daft as it sounds. Supermarkets these days are very keen to promote their green credentials, with organic foods, Fairtrade, etc. Cigarettes are not a very profitable item to sell, and shouldn't eat into their profits very much.

I know it would be a big ask, but once one supermarket took the plunge, the others would follow. Perhaps Waitrose might be a good place to start.

[mikey4444]

TTT...I too have been waiting for the tax revenue nonsense ! Well said.

[ToraToraTora]

Yes mikey, smokers like to ignore the true costs.

Can we not get the celebs and sportsment on board? If pop stars and footballers are saying how uncool it is then would the kids not stop?. Then there is the smell, I mean they stink to high heaven F_F_S. When I was a kid the merest suggestion of smelling was a pi55 taking nightmare so why is smelling like an ashtray ok? I don't get it!

[mikey4444]

Nice to see that we agree about some things at least TTT !

Nothing will change until we start thinking outside of the box. The metaphorical box that is, not the fag packet. But we have to start with the children...education is all here.

[LazyGun]

Maybe. A recent survey by UCL, reported by the Daily Mail in Feb 2014 suggested we actually have broken the 20% barrier, if not by much (19.3% identified as smokers).

Not sure quite what else to do that might encourage a faster decline in smoking, beyond education and making it expensive, and making it awkward or a social no-no in public spaces. It will be interesting to see if the move towards standard packaging and graphic health warnings will accelerate the decline in smoking.

I smoked as a teenager and young adult; And at the time the cost of smoking was not seen as being especially prohibitive; But now £7 for a pack of 20 would be pretty offputting for an awful lot of people. And it just does not seem cool nowadays - and "smoking" an e-cigarette looks especially uncool, in my opinion.

My mum was a long-time smoker and had a lucky escape inasmuch as a lung tumour was picked up early and had a successful surgical procedure. She too now regrets smoking, a big change from her previous opinion.

[sandyRoe]

I think cigarettes are over £8 for 20 now.

[ToraToraTora]

I don't think education alone is enough for kids, it needs to be uncool too.

Unless the price is truly prohibitive it is irrelevant smokers will find the money, we know they are not averse to gassing their own children in the car so starving them won't matter either!

The problem with putting up prices to a prohibitive level just means the black market gets more involved in supplying bootleg snout.

[mikey4444]

I agree that education alone is unlikely to help much on its own. It needs to be an attack on all sides, with cost being a major part. The difficulty with raising the tax by such small amounts each budget, is that if all it means is another 20p or 30p, then smokers will always find the extra. We must never forget that adult, long-term smokers are addicted, which makes the problem even harder to crack.