Smoking 'should not be allowed'

There would be a blanket ban on smoking if it were an activity invented nowadays, it has been claimed.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said that the documented health impact of smoking is so great that there is "no way" that it would be allowed if it was a modern invention.

Her comments come after ASH said increasing tobacco taxation would lead to a 190,000 reduction in the number of smokers.

She explained: "There will be 190,000 fewer smokers in the first year and half of those will be people who won't take up smoking and half will be people who quit.

"This has a major benefit because smoking is so addictive, it's very hard for people to quit and once they start they may be smoking for many years."

Ms Arbnott added that smoking rates among young women have halved in the last decade as they realise that the activity is not only "uncool", but severely damaging to both themselves and the people around them.

The current generation is "much less likely" to smoke but the specialist said that it is still not enough, and the number of lives being saved will not be sufficient until smoking is banned completely.

ASH said that higher taxation on cigarettes could save the NHS over £20 million a year by lowering the cost of treatment of smoking-related diseases and reducing smoking-related absenteeism in the workplace, saving over £10 million a year.

However, Ms Arnott said that this alone will not persuade all smokers to quit, as a combination of measures will be the most effective strategy.

"It's incredibly dangerous but because it is so common you couldn't ban it overnight. What you have to do is use all these other measures to try and help people quit and to stop the next generation becoming addicted," she said.

Posted by Louise Jones

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