Working for a tobacco-free Scotland
SCOT challenges parties to work together to tackle tobacco
19 April 2011
The Scottish Coalition on Tobacco (SCOT) today called on all of Scotland’s political parties to join together in the next Scottish Parliament and support a new tobacco control strategy for Scotland. Sheila Duffy, the chair of the coalition of thirteen health and professional organisations, said smoking was still Scotland’s biggest killer and it was time for parties to work together in the nation’s long-term public health interest. Commenting three weeks before the Holyrood elections Ms Duffy said:
“Smoking causes a quarter of all adult deaths; thousands of other people suffer from smoking-related illnesses; 15,000 young people take up smoking every year; and tobacco costs Scotland £1.1 billion every year. These are important public health challenges for the next government, and importantly for the next intake of MSPs. Our public health should always be an area where our politicians work together in the best interests of Scotland.
“Today, SCOT is calling on all parties to ensure the new Scottish Government develop a new robust tobacco control strategy within the first year of the new parliamentary term. We are also calling on our parties and MSPs to work together in the next parliamentary term to ensure we reduce the major harms smoking causes to Scotland’s public health.
“Much of the work that is needed to tackle smoking needs to be done at a local level. With their links to the local community, local organisations, and public bodies, MSPs are in prime position to champion a tobacco control strategy at national and local levels.
“It is now seven years since Scotland’s first tobacco control action plan was published and its twenty actions have mainly been reached, superseded, or surpassed. The progress made has been very successful and supported widely and there has been a marked change in smoking rates, and attitudes to smoking.
“We made progress in Scotland because there was a comprehensive strategic approach to tackling tobacco. There is now a clear need for a new comprehensive national tobacco control strategy which has targets and evaluation embedded within it. That strategy should include the key aims of preventing young people from starting to smoke, encouraging smokers to quit, reducing exposure to second-hand smoke, and tackling health inequalities caused by smoking.
“England, Wales and Northern Ireland have all published new tobacco control strategies this year as they take their public health policies into the future and look forward to the new challenges and opportunities ahead. Scotland needs to do the same and address the continuing need to reduce smoking and protect people from second-hand smoke.
“Members of the SCOT coalition hope that all those interested in Scotland’s public health – the public, MSPs and other organisations – will commit to creating a new clear tobacco control strategy and help deliver it. We need to reduce the deaths and disease caused by smoking, and prevent our young people from taking up this lethal habit. A new strategy we can all get behind can help do just that.”
