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Euromonitor report on smoking

Tobacco consumption static 1995-99 - but changes are in the pipeline

Commenting on a Euromonitor survey showing that tobacco consumption perhead had not fallen significantly between 1995 and 1999, Clive Bates, Directorof ASH said:

"Of course we want smoking to fall as sharply as possible, but over theperiod of this survey there has been a surge in smoking among teenagers andyoung adults, while smoking among adults in general has declined.  Thankfully teenage smoking had its highwater mark in 1996 and has fallen sharply since then.  We think this was a fashion blip and it is disappearing as fastas it happened" [1]

"The Government White Paper on smoking [2] was only published in December1998, which is too recently to have made much difference to these figures.   And also some of the measures arestill not implemented - for example the advertising ban is blocked by thetobacco industry in the courts."

"In the pipeline there are measures that will make a difference -banning tobacco advertising, restricting smoking at work, making anti-smokingtreatment available on the NHS and tackling tobacco smuggling.  In another five years we will have seena marked decline in smoking."

"We expect the tobacco companies to attribute this to cigarettesmuggling and to call for tobacco taxes to be reduced.  But this predictable mantra would leadto more smoking not less.  The onlycredible response to smuggling is a crack-down rather than a cave-in toorganised crime - and that includes questioning the companies about theirrole in tobacco smuggling.

Notes to the Editor

[1] The teenage smokingfigures have shown a marked decline since 1996.  Among 11-15 year olds 13% smoked in 1996, but this hasdropped to 9% in 1999.  9% was thetarget established by the Government in its White Paper for 2010 and it hasalready been achieved.  At age 15,smoking among girls was 33% in 1996, and this has now dropped to 25%.  Similar reductions have been seen withboys.  Figure from Office forNational Statistics.

[2] Smoking Kills, 10December 1998. www.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm41/4177/contents.htm

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