One in four adults still smoke in parts of England, official figures show.
Rates have plunged over the past few decades thanks to Government attempts to eradicate the deadly habit.
Only 12.9 per cent of adult Brits, or roughly 6.4million, now smoke. For comparison, almost half of people smoked in the 1970s.
The figure sits at 25.1 per cent in mid-Devon — the highest rate in the nation.
Data shows the rate is nearly nine times lower in Stafford, where just 2.9 per cent of adults still light up.
Rishi Sunak yesterday used his first Tory conference speech as Prime Minister to announce he wants to increase the legal smoking age annually in a bid to try and stop teenagers ever taking up cigarettes in the first place. Under the bold proposal, the legal age for buying tobacco will rise every year from 2009, meaning a 14-year-old today will never legally be sold a cigarette under proposed legislation for England
Rishi Sunak wants to make the country ‘smoke-free’ to save the economy and NHS billions and stop thousands from dying young.
Yesterday he unveiled radical proposals at the Tory conference to increase the legal age for buying tobacco every year. If passed, it will mean those aged 14 today will never legally be sold a cigarette.
Charities and health experts immediately welcomed Mr Sunak’s plans, saying it will save tens of thousands of lives from preventable causes linked to smoking, such as cancer, heart attacks and strokes.
But some thinktanks, smokers’ rights groups and a handful of Tory MPs claimed the policy was ‘hideously illiberal’ and doomed for failure.
The bold policy was recommended in a Government-commissioned report last year by ex-children’s charity chief Javed Khan.
He was tasked with finding ways England could be smoke-free by 2030 — defined as less than five per cent of people smoking.
As well as implementing the policy announced by Mr Sunak yesterday, he suggested banning supermarkets from selling tobacco products, making it illegal to smoke in public places, such as pub gardens, and slapping an 18-plus rating on all films and TV shows with tobacco imagery.
He warned smoking costs the country £17billion every year, including £2.4billion to the NHS alone.
The report also highlighted how smoking rates differed hugely across England.
Mid-Devon had the highest smoking rates in 2022, according to data by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Hastings in East Sussex logged second place (23.7 per cent).
It was followed by three neighbouring districts: Lincoln (23.5 per cent), Boston (22.9 per cent), and North East Lincolnshire (21.8 per cent).
At the other end of the scale came Stafford and then Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire (4 per cent).
Just seven of roughly 300 local areas currently meet the 2030 smoke-free target of less than five per cent.
ONS data also shows that the number of people smoking cigarettes in the UK has dropped to a record low.
In total 6.4million adults in the UK — or 12.9 per cent — smoked in 2022.
This is the lowest number since records began in 2011 and is a drop on the 13.3 per cent reported in 2021.
Nearly £1.4billion was wiped off Britain’s tobacco companies yesterday after Mr Sunak’s announcement.
Dunhill and Lucky Strike owner British American Tobacco saw some £974million wiped off its value, while Imperial Brands faced a £404million slump.
A spokesman for Imperial said: ‘The proposal to ban the legal sale of cigarettes over time threatens significant unintended consequences.’
Smoking kills around 78,000 people in the UK every year, with many more living with illnesses due to their habit — half of which are due to cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attack and stroke.
Javed Khan, a former children’s charity chief who was tasked with finding ways Britain could stick to its smoke-free target, warned in August 2022 that England is set to miss the target by at least seven years. He suggested hiking the age limit for purchasing cigarettes in England, currently set at 18, by 12 months every year until no-one can legally buy a tobacco product
But the ONS survey also found the number of people smoking cigarettes in the UK has dropped to a record low. In total 6.4million adults in the UK — or 12.9 per cent — smoked in 2022. This is the lowest number since records began in 2011 and is a drop on the 13.3 per cent reported in 2021
Speaking to BBC Breakfast today, Sir Chris Whitty said he supported the move.
England’s chief medical officer said: ‘Very large numbers of people living in the UK today will have illness, disability for many years and die because of smoking.
‘We know this will work. When the age of cigarettes were raised for illegal buying from 16 to 18, that led to a drop.’
Responding to arguments made by Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ lobby group Forest, who appeared earlier in the programme, he also said: ‘There are two things I think are worth saying.
‘The first is — and he’s very open about this — his organisation is funded by the cigarette industry and if they were not worried about this, they wouldn’t be arguing against this.
‘The argument this will not lead to a drop, is a bogus one.
‘The second thing I think he has not really taken into account is and those who argue against it need to think about carefully, is that smoking is an issue based on addiction.’
He added: ‘Most people who smoke wish they’d never taken it up. They’ve tried to stop and they can’t.
‘And that’s the point, their choice has been taken away from them.
‘As a doctor I’ve seen many people in hospital desperate to stop smoking because it’s something that is killing them and yet they cannot. Their choice has been removed.’
It is estimated that around 500,000 hospital admissions every year in England are attributable to smoking and that smoking costs the economy £17billion per year.
Of this, £2.4billion falls on the NHS, £1.19billion falls on the social care system, and over £13billion is lost in productivity costs from tobacco-related lost earnings, unemployment and premature death.
The 7,000 chemicals in tobacco — including tar and others that can narrow arteries and damage blood vessels — are thought to be behind some of the damage smoking inflicts on the heart.
Meanwhile, nicotine — a highly addictive toxin found in tobacco — is heavily linked with dangerous increases in heart rate and blood pressure.
Smoking also unleashes poisonous gases such as carbon monoxide, which replaces oxygen in the blood — reducing the availability of oxygen for the heart.
Content source – www.soundhealthandlastingwealth.com
