NHS launches January campaign against smoking

As reported by NHE, with smoking costing the UK £17bn annually, the NHS initiates a campaign urging 5.3 million smokers to quit

The government says smoking costs around £17bn a year to society – this includes £14bn in losses in productivity and £3bn to the health and care system.

This is the equivalent of 400 million GP appointments, or the annual salaries for:

• 500,000 nurses
• 390,000 GPs
• 400,000 police officers

Andrea Leadsom, the minister for public health, explained: “Smoking is the biggest preventable killer in the UK and places a huge burden on our NHS.

As part of the campaign to help England’s 5.3 million smokers quit, the NHS has released a new “hard-hitting” video featuring former England footballer, David James, that discusses the influence parents have on people’s smoking habits.

The former England goalkeeper is joined by Nick Hopkinson, who is a professor of respiratory medicine at Imperial College London and TV doctor, Sarah Jarvis, who details the wider effect of generational smoking.

Prof Hopkinson said: “Our research shows that the influence of family and friends is a significant driving force in young people taking up cigarettes in the first place, making them more than three times as likely to start smoking if their parents, caregivers or friends do.”

According to Imperial College London analysis of UK millennium cohort study data, one in 10 teenagers were regular smokers by the age of 17, which is the equivalent of approximately 160,000 people. Four in five smokers start before the age of 20.

This is after last year saw the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, announce plans to outlaw the sale of cigarettes to anyone born in 2009 or after.

The majority of the public support the principle of creating a smokefree generation, per a YouGov survey commissioned by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).

ASH’s chief executive, Deborah Arnott, commented: “Over three-quarters of the public support the Prime Minister’s ambition to create a smokefree generation.”

She continued: “Legislation to end cigarette sales to anyone born on or after the 1 January 2009 will be crucial to delivering that ambition. But as role models for their children, parents who smoke can play their part too.”