Liverpool has launched a tobacco control strategy with the ultimate goal of seeing the habit eradicated. The plan involves changing attitudes to smoking and includes lobbying for legislative changes to support the aim of reducing smoking in Liverpool to just 5% of the population by 2030 – down from over 17% today. In a campaign extended to vaping, young people are being told not to vape. The initiative comes as smoking costs Liverpool £623m p.a., including £416m in lost productivity, £201.8m in health and social care costs and £4.4m linked to smoking-related fires.
Liverpool’s Director of Public Health, Professor Matt Ashton, said the strategy was designed to tackle the issue “from all sides” but added that the council could not succeed alone, and called on the support of partners. Two-thirds of smokers die from tobacco-related disease.
Liverpool Councillor Harry Doyle, also a member of the Cabinet for Health, Wellbeing and Culture, said he “made no apologies” for aiming to make smoking obsolete in Liverpool. Smoking is the biggest cause of preventable death and illness in the city. The policy covers a range of goals in addition to the ambition of making the city smoke-free, from creating more smoke-free locations to tackling the enforcement of illicit tobacco and nicotine products and sales to minors.
Dr. Ian Sinha, Consultant Respiratory Paediatrician at Alder Hey Hospital, pointed to uncertainties surrounding the effects of vapes on young people, particularly the long-term health issues associated with developing lungs and addiction to nicotine
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