North East campaigners unite in calls for tough new measures to end smoking

More than 113,000 people in the North East have been killed by tobacco companies since the Millennium. The stark new figures are released in time for a major new Parliamentary report calling for bold national action to tackle smoking.

On Wednesday 9th June the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Smoking and Health, as well as a North East doctor and an ex-cancer patient from South Shields will be calling on the Government to include a set of tough new measures in its forthcoming Tobacco Control Plan.

The APPG believes these measures are essential if the ambition for England to be smokefree by 2030 is to be achieved. The recommendations are part of a report being launched at a round table attended by the Public Health Minister, Jo Churchill MP.

Ailsa Rutter OBE, Director of Fresh and Balance said:
“Twenty years ago, I lost my own father at the age of 61 to an entirely preventable smoking related illness. Like so many millions he had got hooked onto smoking when he was still a child and never imagined how devastating this would ultimately be. Every day I remember him, and it spurs me on to keep pushing for action that can prevent this happening to other families across the region.

“The last year has put into sharp focus the importance of health, and the report from the APPG on Smoking provides good evidence for what the government must do to ‘make smoking obsolete’ as they said was their ambition back in July 2019. We know here in the North East we have high levels of public support for important measures like making tobacco manufacturers pay a levy to Government for measures to help smokers quit and prevent young people from taking up smoking, and raising the age of sale to 21.”

Dr Ruth Sharrock, Respiratory Consultant and Clinical Lead for Tobacco Dependency with the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System, and speaking at the parliamentary launch event on 9th June said:

“Unfortunately the mainstay of my job as a Respiratory Consultant is seeing the widespread, devastating effects caused by smoking.

“Whether it is hospital in-patients with COPD and emphysema requiring oxygen, nebulisers or ventilator support or outpatients having to be told they have a lung cancer – the effects are utterly devastating to patients and their families. It feels like a futile firefight until we are focusing on a much more heavy handed strategy to stem the problem where it starts – people becoming dependent on tobacco in the first place.

“No one wants their children to suffer from cancer or wake up gasping for breath. Sadly, that’s the reality for many smokers, we know their family are also more likely to smoke. That’s why we need the harm to stop now, to create a smokefree future for the next generation.

“I wholeheartedly welcome all the recommendations in the APPG report in particular making the tobacco industry pay to end the terrible harm they cause. This will hugely reduce the current and future burden on the NHS, reduce health inequalities and save many lives.”