Smoking ban for cars due October 2015

From October 2015 it will be illegal to smoke in cars with children present under the biggest crackdown on smoking from the Government since the introduction of the 2007 ban on smoking in public places.

The Department of Health (DoH) said the tighter regulations laid before Parliament to make private vehicles carrying under-18s smoke-free were formulated with the aim to “protect young people from the serious health harms of smoked tobacco”.

The new plans will result in a fixed fine of £50 being given to people who smoke, or those who fail to prevent others from lighting up within private vehicles also carrying children.

Early in the New Year there will be a vote on the subject, involving both MPs and peers. Following this, there will be a period of three weeks for them to thoroughly assess the proposals put forth by the Department of Health.

This appears to be a formality though following a majority approval by MPs earlier in the year. Back in February MPs voted 376 to 107 – a majority of 269 – in favour of the ban, first suggested by Labour as an amendment to the children and families bill. The majority vote even eclipsed that which resulted in the smoking ban from July 2007, forbidding smoking in areas such as pubs, restaurants and nightclubs.

Most of the country could be behind the ban according to a YouGov poll for the anti-smoking group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), which discovered that 77% of adults – including 64% of those who actually smoke – were behind the plans to make it illegal to light up in cars carrying anyone under the age of 18.

The legislation would criminalise smoking from parents, carers or other adults in a car where there is anyone present under 18. According to the British Lung Foundation, there are about 430,000 children that are exposed to second-hand smoke each week in a family car.

Dr Penny Woods, the charity’s chief executive, raved about the Government’s plans, saying she was “delighted” by the proposals.

She said: “We are now closer than ever to helping protect the hundreds of thousands of children exposed to dangerous concentrations of second-hand smoke in cars every week.”

ASH were also happy with the plans to ban smoking in cars with children, but said the legislation should go one step further and stretch to a blanket ban which would also comprise of adults in vehicles too.

ASH chief executive Deborah Arnott said: “We are delighted that the Government is to press ahead with regulations to prohibit smoking in cars containing children.

“As with the smoke-free public places law, this is a popular measure that will largely be self-enforcing. However, second-hand smoke is just as harmful to adults as children and it makes it more difficult to enforce if it only applies to some cars, not all. Seatbelt laws don’t just apply to children, why should smoke-free car laws?”

Smokers shun the NHS for help quitting smoking

The number of people using the NHS for help in successfully quitting smoking has declined for the second consecutive year, according to a new report.

Statistics to emerge from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) have been branded “disappointing” by anti-smoking campaigners, showing that more than 586,000 people set a quit date using the NHS Stop Smoking Services through 2013/14, in comparison to over 724,000 people in 2012/13 – representing a 19% drop.

It marks the first time a decline has occurred over successive years since 2001, when NHS Stop Smoking Services began being provided to England’s local authorities.

Anti-smoking charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) believe the drop is down to a “combination of the impact of changes in the health service, fewer mass marketing campaigns that specifically encourage people to visit services and the impact of electronic cigarettes”.

Around half (300,540) of those who had set a target quit date then managed to give up smoking, with the over 60s being able to boast having the largest number of successful quitters at 58%.

Unsurprisingly, people aged 18 or under were the demographic with the lowest percentage of people who had managed to quit smoking (39%).

Hazel Cheeseman, director of policy at ASH said: “We know an ever increasing number of people are using electronic cigarettes to help them quit. While services can’t prescribe people electronic cigarettes, they can give people who want to use them extra support which can make all the difference to a successful quit.”

Martin Dockrell, tobacco control programme lead at Public Health England, which monitors NHS Stop Smoking Services, commented how “local stop smoking services are effective as ever at helping smokers to quit, even if overall numbers using the services have declined. Smokers are four times more likely to succeed using these services.”

He further added: “Many factors could explain why overall numbers are down including the emerging popularity of e-cigarettes as a quitting aid. However, so far no e-cigarettes have been licensed as medicines, and their contents and quality varies greatly. There is no reason why someone wanting to quit using an e-cigarette shouldn’t also speak to a stop smoking service to receive additional support and advice to stand the best chance of quitting for good.”

Smoking is still the single biggest factor behind illness and early death in Britain, not only negatively impacting the person smoking, but those in the close vicinity around them through second-hand smoking. Quite simply, quitting smoking is the best thing you can do. It is never too late to stop, making a big difference to your health and even increase life expectancy.