Cancer Charity Responds to Ten-Year Tobacco Control Strategy Final Review

Cancer Focus Northern Ireland welcomes the publishing of the end of term review for the Tobacco Control Strategy for NI which notes some key gains for local people over the past decade.

Welcoming the news that overall, there has been a decrease in smoking prevalence, the charity is pleased to see that this fall has been especially common for young people and pregnant women. This highlights the impact that legislative changes such as standardised packaging, a retailer register, and a ban on proxy purchasing and underage sales of e-cigs to under 18’s can have on vulnerable groups. The charity does note that within some demographics the decline has been much slower, such as routine and manual workers, and believes that lessons need to be learned moving forward to better target this sector of society.

Speaking about the findings from the review, Naomi Thompson, Health Improvement Manager at Cancer Focus NI said:

“With such good progress started in this strategy, we look forward to seeing the introduction of a new robust and comprehensive, well-funded Strategy for Tobacco. We believe that this will continue the work of preventing uptake, encouraging and supporting quitting, maintaining enforcement and legislation whilst dealing with novel nicotine containing products or other new developments in the world of Tobacco control.”

Click Here to read the Ten-Year Tobacco Control Strategy Final Review