Health bosses want tobacco adverts ban

2:11pm Friday 10th October 2008

HEALTH bosses in Bolton are calling on the Government to ban all tobacco advertising and force shopkeepers to “hide” cigarettes behind the counter.

NHS Bolton, which is the new name for Bolton’s Primary Care Trust, has signed up to the Beyond Smoking Kills report that has been launched by Action on Smoking and Health.

The report, which has been compiled by a team of medical and scientific experts, is calling on the Government to enforce a raft of radical new measures to encourage people to stub it out.

These include plain packaging for all tobacco products, banning the display of tobacco products in shops, clamping down on tobacco smuggling and giving smokers access to non-tobacco alternatives, such as nicotine replacement therapy.

Jan Hutchinson, director of public health for NHS Bolton, said: “We’ve seen significant and welcome reductions over recent years in the number of Bolton people who smoke, but smoking still causes far more preventable deaths in Bolton than anything else.

“That’s why we have joined the campaign for a proper national plan to reduce the harm from tobacco and we are pleased to endorse this important report.”

The number of people smoking in Bolton has fallen from 29.6 per cent in 2001 to 23 per cent last year, with six per cent of adults smoking more than 20 cigarettes a day. In some parts of the borough, such as the Hall i’th’ Wood estate, as many as 65 per cent of people smoke.

More than 100 health and welfare organisations have signed up to support the report nationally, which has been presented to health minister, Dawn Primarolo.

New figures released earlier this week revealed the annual cost to the NHS of treating smoking-related illnesses has risen from £1.7 billion in 1998 to £2.7 billion now.