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Youth smoking up despite ban
Friday, December 19 04:00 pm
The number of young people smoking in Scotland has risen sharply, despite the ban in pubs. Nearly a third of 16 to 24 year-olds are smokers, an official health report showed. The percentage - 31 per cent - is a substantial rise on the number of young smokers in 2004, which stood at 25 per cent. The smoking ban was imposed in March 2006. Public health minister Shona Robison said: "We are committed to doing all we can to reducing smoking rates in Scotland - both by encouraging more smokers to quit and discouraging young people from starting in the first place. "Significant progress has been made in recent years to shift cultural attitudes to smoking, but this report clearly demonstrates that firm action needs to continue if we are to succeed in our desire to make Scotland smoke-free." The findings will disappoint anti-smoking campaigners. Even though some of the demographic are too young to go to pubs, several experts predicted the ban would have a freezing effect on society, where smoking lost some of its charm to the young. But David Gordon of NHS Health Scotland said smoking figures did not always yield reliable results. "Smoking rates have fluctuated without showing any sustained trend between 1999 and 2007," he said. The figures show women are more likely to smoke than men between ages 16 to 19 while men become more likely to smoke between 20 and 24. Half of young adult smokers in 2006 were in employment, while 30 per cent were not in education, employment or training.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1095784/Smoking-ban-fails-curb-habit-Figures-reveal-men-smoking-MORE.html#
Smoking ban fails to curb the habit: Figures reveal men are smoking MORE
By Daniel Martin
Last updated at 11:42 PM on 16th December 2008
The ban on smoking in public has failed to increase the number of people quitting, a report revealed yesterday.
The proportion of men who smoke has actually risen since the ban in July last year while there was no change at all among women.
The figures, coming after years of declining smoking rates, are a massive blow to Labour's public heath policy.
According to the report, the average number of cigarettes smoked each day did not fall significantly
A survey of almost 7,000 across all age groups found on average there was no change in the number of cigarettes that smokers said they had.
But in men aged 16 to 34, the number rose, by one and a half cigarettes a day.
It had been hoped the ban would help reduce smoking rates among the poor in particular, but instead the number of cigarettes smoked by working class men has gone up.
Off the shelf: Other anti-smoking plans include selling cigarettes under the counter to cut smoking rates among children
The Health Survey for England, carried out by the NHS for ministers, has raised fears that smokers are simply lighting up at home rather than in pubs and restaurants - potentially putting children at risk.
Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said: 'These are pretty stark figures which demonstrate forcefully that the Government's strategy on smoking has not been successful.
'It's yet another case of the Government pursuing tough eye-catching initiatives which in the end don't succeed in tackling the real problem.'
Pro-smoking groups called the smoking ban 'an unmitigated failure'
The smoking ban was introduced in England on July 1, 2007, to improve the health of those working in bars, restaurants and other workplaces through passive smoking.
However, ministers also hoped it would help them meet targets to reduce smoking rates, particularly among those from more deprived backgrounds.
When she introduced the ban, the then health secretary Patricia Hewitt said: 'This is an enormous step forward for public health. It is going to make it easier for people who want to give up smoking to do so. Over time it will save thousands of lives.'
But polls carried out before and after the ban show it has not had that impact.
The number of cigarettes smoked by men aged 16 to 34 has increased by one and a half cigarettes a day, from an average of 10.9 to 12.5 a day.
The percentage of females who smoke remained constant at 21 per cent, while male smokers rose from 23 per cent to 24 per cent.
One in three smokers said the ban had encouraged them to stay at home, where they could still smoke. The numbers saying the ban would encourage them to quit dramatically fell after it came into force.
A spokesman for the pro-smoking pressure group Forest said: 'These figures show that the smoking ban has been an unmitigated failure.'
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: 'Smokefree laws were introduced to protect employees and the public from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke.
'The legislation was never intended to be a measure to reduce smoking prevalence.'
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