The CIEH and stakeholders are urging Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) to implement effective tobacco control plans.
The call from the Smokefree Action Coalition, of which the CIEH is a member, says that tobacco remains the major preventable cause of death and disease in the UK, stating that that “a few key decisions by your leadership team will save money on reduced consultations, prescriptions and admissions”.
The letter to all PCT chief executives says that tobacco control should be included in PCTs five-year strategic plans, involving local strategic partnerships. The Smokefree Action Coalition say it should be seen as essential to reducing local health inequalities.
Tobacco control plans should include support to help smokers to quit, particularly smokers from manual occupations, pregnant women, those with children and people suffering from mental ill health, it says. Tobacco related laws and regulations should be enforced and new rules banning point of sale retail displays and the sale of tobacco through vending machines prepared for.
The coalition also urges PCTs to work with the Revenue and Customs and police to help stop the trade in illicit tobacco; to devise education and social marketing campaigns to help shift social norms and that reducing smoking in the home and cars should be priorities.
The Smokefree Action Coalition is an alliance of more than 100 organisations including the CIEH and ASH. The letter to PCTs is signed by Faculty of Public Health President Prof Alan Maryon Davis, Chair of the NHS Confederation Bryan Stoten and ASH Chief Executive Deborah Arnott.