Let’s stub out smoking for the next generation

It’s hard to imagine it has been twenty years since the Government published a White Paper proposing a ban on smoking in certain indoor settings that would eventually include all enclosed workplaces and public places. At the time, 115,000 people in the UK were dying each year from smoking-related illnesses, with over a quarter of these tragic deaths attributed to heart and circulatory diseases. Twenty years on, smoke free indoor spaces are now the norm, and the controversy around their acceptance has long faded.

Having seen the devastating toll that tobacco takes on countless lives and families, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) has long supported action that protects people’s health from the burden of tobacco addiction. In 2004 we helped play our part in partnership with the Department of Health, running a hard-hitting advertising campaign called Give Up Before You Clog Up. In this gruesome ad, we used an arresting image of a cigarette dripping fat to graphically bring to life the fatty build-up smoking causes in our arteries, dramatically bringing home the damage that every cigarette causes. It was my first BHF campaign, and I remember it hit hard.

It was estimated that over 14,000 smokers gave up as a direct result of the visceral and iconic campaign, doubling attendance at smoking cessation clinics year on year, and saving the NHS millions. As we listened to people’s responses, as now, the burden of nicotine addiction weighed heavy on so many smokers shoulders.

Twenty years on, we’ve made progress driven by further tobacco regulation, but it’s still shocking that this year 80,000 people in the UK will lose their lives to causes related to smoking, and the progress we’re making has slumped since the pandemic.

There is also no doubt that smoking affects those in deprived communities harder. Smoking remains a key driver of UK health inequalities across the UK, with nearly five times more adults smoking in the most deprived areas of Lincolnshire, compared to the least deprived parts of Surrey. More must be done to help tackle this, with more and more targeted cessation services made available where the need is greatest.

And so today, in 2024, as a new Bill to raise the age of sale for tobacco enters Parliament, we have a critical window to act and protect future generations from the devastating impact of smoking.

To save lives and families from the burden of losing loved ones all too early it is critical that we not only continue to support current smokers to quit but ensure the next generation is protected from starting smoking in the first place.

This Bill is an opportunity for the UK Government to lead the way for a Smokefree Generation – saving lives, tackling health inequalities and in turn lightening the load and cost on our NHS.
Such changes can seem radical in the moment, and those changes that balance freedoms and financial interests are always hotly contested.

But at the British Heart Foundation we know all too well the human cost of tobacco, counting the 80,000 loved ones’ families lose across the UK every year as we lose more smokers to heart attacks and strokes.

And so, as the UK’s heart charity we urge every politician to back this life-saving legislation. This is the moment to take a bold step that will save lives. It is not a moment for smoke and mirrors, but to take inspiration from advances made over two decades and make choices that will protect future generations from the devastation tobacco brings.

Read our information on smoking