Cancer charity urges NI to Follow England's anti-smoking plans
Smoking causes nearly one in five cancer cases and more than one in four cancer deaths each year in the UK
Last updated 10th Jun 2022
A leading cancer charity is calling for Northern Ireland to follow England’s plans to tackle smoking.
The publication of the UK Government-commissioned review includes suggestions for a "polluter" tax to help smokers quit, while another recommendation is for the legal age for buying tobacco to rise every year.
Health Improvement Manager with Cancer Focus Northern Ireland, Naomi Thompson, said the details laid out in Dr Javed Khan’s report, which includes 15 recommendations in total, are “exactly what we would love to happen in Northern Ireland."
She said: “We would love to look at the age of sales of tobacco, so that whether it's moved year on year, as they're doing an England, to a point where nobody will be able to be buying tobacco or whether we change the age of sales from 18 to 21.
"That would be something that we would be looking at in Northern Ireland.”.
As part of the review Dr Khan issued four "critical must-dos" for the Government to be acted upon immediately, including an extra £125 million per year to fund the support that smokers need to help them quit.
The second to increase the age of sale from 18, by one year every year, until no-one can buy a tobacco product.
The third call is to promote vaping as an "effective tool to help people to quit smoking tobacco", which, although not a risk-free "silver bullet", is better than smoking.
Fourthly, prevention "must become part of the NHS's DNA", Dr Khan said, adding that the health service must do more to advise and support smokers to quit "at every interaction they have with health services".
In a statement the Department of Health said that although the Khan review recommendations do not relate directly to NI, “the details of the recommendations, along with the UK Government response, will be considered within a Northern Ireland context in due course.
It said: “In February this year the Department of Health introduced laws prohibiting the sale of products such as e-cigarettes or vapes to children, and the purchase of them on behalf of children.
“Any breaches of these regulations can lead to significant penalties, and, for repeated offences, retailers can be banned from selling such products for up to three years.
“We will continue to monitor the use of such products by young people and consider further ways of reducing access and appeal if necessary.”
Ms Thompson welcomed the change to NI’s smoking laws earlier this year.
She said: “We were delighted in February whenever the smoking in cars ban if there's a child or someone under the age of 18 in the car.
“But you know, we had to wait an extra six years from England to get that in Northern Ireland.
“We don't want to wait another six years for the things that England may get in this report to come in Northern Ireland.
“We want that to happen now. So really the next steps for us are looking very much at what is our smoke free target?”
Currently the UK Government is on track to miss its target to make England smoke-free by 2030, which means 5% or fewer adult’s smoke.
Ms Thompson also questioned when NI would be completely tobacco free.
She added: “England are aiming at 2030. Is that realistic for us? What should our target be?
“We should certainly be aiming towards a tobacco free Northern Ireland.
“You know, people who aren't being put at risk from tobacco, from nicotine addiction, is really the key and we don't want the delays that we've had when we didn't have an Assembly the previous time, things slipped a bit, and we don't want it to slip again.”
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