Reducing smoking to save lives

It’s now well-known that smoking kills. But it wasn’t until the 1970s that smoking was proven to lead to heart attacks and stroke. In the 1980s, research started to demonstrate that non-smokers living with smokers were at higher risk of heart and circulatory diseases, as well as other conditions. And so our understanding of the dangers passive smoking began. But it was not until the early 2000s that people understood the damage caused by exposure to tobacco smoke in public places, such as the workplace, pubs, restaurants. Our research helped to reveal this, and in particular the effects that second-hand smoke in public places can have on the heart and blood vessels.

The danger of passive smoking

In the 1990s, we started funding the British Regional Heart Study to find out what factors cause coronary heart disease, a condition where your coronary arteries become narrowed by a build-up of fatty material within their walls, increasing your risk of having a heart attack. In 2004, using data from this study, Professor Peter Whincup and his team at St George’s, University of London, showed that passive smoking (breathing in other people’s tobacco smoke) in public places can increase your risk of coronary heart disease by as much as if you were smoking one to nine cigarettes a day. This crucial study highlighted the need for a smoking ban in public places, which was included in the 2006 Health Act.

In 2006, Scotland was the first of the UK nations to introduce a complete smoking ban in public places indoors. We part-funded Professor Jill Pell and colleagues at the University of Glasgow to evaluate whether the ban was protecting the heart health of non-smokers exposed to passive smoking. The team showed that just one year after the ban came into force, hospital admissions for heart attacks had decreased by 17% in nine hospitals around the country. The team also reported that exposure to second-hand smoke was down by 40% among adults and children.

These results confirmed that the legislation was protecting the health of non-smokers. This study has been used around the world to further strengthen the public health case for smoking bans.

After Scotland banned smoking in enclosed public spaces, Wales and Northern Ireland followed suit in April 2007, and England in July 2007.

Campaigning for change

At least 100,000 people in the UK die from smoking-related causes each year. That’s why we've been campaigning for years to raise awareness and for stricter controls on tobacco, to reduce the number of people suffering or dying.

In 2004, we ran a hard-hitting advertising campaign showing a cigarette dripping fat. It made headlines and had a real impact on smokers, with 83 per cent of surveyed people saying it made them consider quitting.

Thanks to years of campaigning from us and others, the last 20 years has seen a series of tobacco control measures, including a ban on advertising in billboards and media (television advertising had been banned in 1965), plain packaging for cigarettes, and bans on cigarette vending machines, advertising in shops and smoking in cars with a child present.

Continuing the fight

Before the BHF was founded, more than half of adults in the UK were smokers. Today that has fallen to just one in six. And the number of heart and circulatory disease deaths linked to smoking has fallen by two thirds in the last three decades. But the job is not finished. We want everyone to live in a smoke-free UK. That is why we are a core funder of Action on Smoking and Health, and a member of the Smoke Free Action Coalition.

As new products like e-cigarettes enter the market, research into their health effects is vital. That is why we are funding research to better understand the effect of e-cigarettes on your heart and blood vessels.

First published 1st June 2021