News Release: Thursday 14 May 2009
Six times more Scots die from smoking than from accidents, homicide, suicide, falls, and poisoning combined
Speaking to the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland’s (REHIS) Annual Conference in Ayr today [Thursday 14 May], ASH Scotland Chief Executive Sheila Duffy revealed that six times more people die due to smoking than the combined total of accidents, traffic deaths, homicide, suicide, falls, and poisoning. In her speech Ms Duffy said:
“Tobacco control is a series of small, incremental steps on a journey which began almost half a century ago, when the links between smoking and lung cancer were demonstrated beyond doubt. The UK outlawed the television advertising of cigarettes in 1965, forty years before tobacco ads were finally pulled from Formula One in 2005.
“Forty years between the first and last acts in the UK’s efforts to restrict the advertising of a known killer. How many people became hooked during those four decades as a result of tobacco advertising? How many of them died, or are dying, or will die as a result of their addiction?
“Figures for Scotland show that smoking-related diseases kill six times as many people as accidents – including traffic accidents, homicide, suicide, falls, and poisoning put together (2).
“If someone is killed in a road accident, murdered, takes their own life or dies as a result of a poisoning, it’s a newsworthy event. People take notice. The 13,500 Scots who die from tobacco-related illnesses every year are the silent victims of a major health epidemic. One in four of all Scottish deaths are estimated to be smoking-related. It’s a staggering figure, and a tragic waste of life.
“But stopping blatant advertising has not stopped the tobacco companies advertising the only legal product known to kill around half of its long term regular users. It has just moved the goalposts. The marketing and promotion of tobacco is still done through large displays that take pride of place in every corner shop, petrol station, and supermarket in the land. But it’s nothing to be proud of.
“We know that children and young people are more likely to smoke the most heavily marketed brands of cigarettes and they attempt to buy cigarettes in shops where tobacco is most visible. We know the overwhelming majority of existing smokers became addicted in their teens. We know this through research and we know this because the tobacco industry is fighting tooth and nail to try and stop both Holyrood and Westminster legislating against those displays. They know and we know that marketing works, especially on new smokers. After all 15,000 Scots take up smoking every year, continuing to replace those who quit or die, and keeping Big Tobacco making their big profits.
“So there remains a battle ahead. Between Big Tobacco, their big money, and the front groups they fund to scaremonger, and small health organisations with tiny resources. But although small and without the huge funding the tobacco companies have, there is a huge base of support for ending the promotion of tobacco including health and youth bodies, universities, NHS boards, local authorities, and a number of professional organisations.
“It is organisations like ours that will continue to argue against the misinformation and the scaremongering as we continue our long campaign to tackle the harmful effects of smoking on our nation’s health and prevent children in Scotland from becoming addicted. It is a long journey, and we will have setbacks, but we can and must go on together one step at a time”.
ENDS
Notes for Editors
1. ASH Scotland is an independent Scottish charity working in partnership to protect people from the harm caused by tobacco. Registered Scottish charity number SC 010412.
2. For further details see: http://www.ashscotland.org.uk/ash/6996.html