Tobacco.org

UK hopes bill will tackle smoking in children  

23 000 children aged 11—15 years bought cigarettes from vending machines in 2008, estimates the British Heart Foundation. And so the recent vote by members of parliament in the House of Commons for a health bill to ban cigarette vending machines and point of sale tobacco displays in the UK is being applauded by antismoking campaigners.

Smoking costs the UK's National Health Service £5 billion a year. Antismoking efforts in the UK over the past decade have been aggressive and there has been some progress but current statistics indicate that there is still a long way to go. In the past 10 years, the number of smokers has dropped by almost 2·5 million; however, more than 10 million adults in the UK are smokers and 80 000 people still die from smoking-associated diseases every year in England alone.

But the focus has now moved to child and adolescent smokers, particularly as new statistics indicate that 66% of adult smokers started when they were under age.

Jump to full article »