East Yorkshire and North East Lincolnshire Launch Campaign to Inspire a Smoke Free Generation.
Councils in East Yorkshire and North East Lincolnshire are pushing a campaign to inspire communities to make sure children grow up in a smoke free environment.
Both councils are asking businesses and individuals to get behind the Breathe 2025 campaign. The city of Hull has the second highest adult smoking level, with 30% of adults smoking, whilst nationally it’s only 18%. This means that the city alone has over 63,000 smokers.
Whilst North East Lincolnshire has the highest rate; with 20.1% of adults smoking. However, in the region the number of 15 year-olds smoking has dropped to only 1 in 10. North East Lincolnshire council believe that in the next 10 years there could be a generation of children that don't smoke.
The Breathe 2025 campaign hopes to tackle the following:
1 set an example — encouraging young people to avoid tobacco. 2 make it harder for children and young people to use tobacco* 3 make tobacco less affordable 4 limit tobacco marketing that is likely to be seen by children and young people 5 limit children and young people’s exposure to smoking in films and other media 6 educate young people and help them make healthy choices *7 protect our children and young people from exposure to second-hand smoke.
Viking FM spoke to public health specialist Paul Lambert who explained why it's so important to get behind this campaign ...
'We've made tremendous success in reducing the smoking rates in the past 10, 20 years through various legislation. But we still have 51 young people starting smoking every day in Yorkshire. And reducing smoking rates is not an easy task, and involves lots of interventions.'
'The idea is that to create a smoke free generation it’s down to everybody. It’s not just down to the council and NHS. Everyone can take apart in trying to achieve that aim. Big or small, it might be choosing not to smoke in front of the children or making your home smoke free.'
'The majority of smokers started before they were 18. If you can get to your 26th birthday without smoking, the chances are you'll never smoke. We hear it all the time with smokers wishing they had never started. It’s these actions we can do that will discourage people from starting smoking but, also creating good positive role models for young people.'