UK smoking rate has been reduced to its lowest ever level since the recording commenced in the 1940s. Official figures are suggesting that the smoking prevalence among older than 18 years old users decreased from 19.8% back in 2012 to 18.7% last year.
The ministers have promptly welcomed the figures, statisticians were more careful as they pointed out the various ways wherein the figures have been gathered through the years. These figures were from the ONS or Office for National Statistics.
The ONS figures suggest that males remain more likely to smoke cigarettes at 21.1% while women smokers were only at 16.5%. About one third of the population claims that they are former smokers. About half of the population said they never smoked at all.
Figures for the tobacco industry back in the 1940s showed quite well in more than half for those older than 16 years old in the UK. The proportion is rising to about 2/3 of men. The proportion of smoking in women did not peak until late 1960s.
ONS began collating the figures back in 1974. It found then that 45% of Britons were smoking while 52% of men and 41% of men were smoking. Statisticians prefer to be cautious. They especially do so because there have been differences in the way the surveys have been carried out through the years. The recent ONS report has experimental statistics that is based on over 268,000 responses from more than 18 years old to the integrated household survey of ONS.
More detailed figures are expected from the general lifestyle survey that covered Great Britain for the following month. This survey will also show the statistics on the smoking prevalence among 16-18 years old.
This latter survey previously indicated as well that the smoking decline might have even stalled with the persistent 20% among smokers aged over 16 years old who stubbornly remain smoking. This percentage remained unchanged from 2010 until 2012.
Welcomed By Ministers And Others
Nevertheless, the figures were welcomed by the British ministers and also by ASH or Action on Smoking and Health. ASH remarked that the data likewise suggested that the fears that the increasing use of ecigarettes will help turn the consumers to tobacco were not supported.
The only statistically significant drop that was reported involved the proportion of smokers that fell to 18.4% from 19.5%. This means that the target that the Department of Health had set to reach by year 2015 was already attained as early as now. This is based on a 20.2% baseline.
In Scotland, there is 21.1% of the population smoking cigarettes while Wales has a comparable smoking rate at 19.8% and Northern Ireland has 18.7%.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt tweeted about this. He said that it is never too late to stop smoking. His tweet also promoted the Stoptober Campaign of the UK government.
Meanwhile, ASH chief executive Deborah Arnott noted that the statistically important smoking rate decline among adults is a sign that the tobacco control plan of the government is working. Nonetheless, there are still 80,000 people dying from smoke related causes in England every year as hundreds of children take up smoking every week.
She said that plain standardized packaging and tough new measures on tobacco regulation are still needed in order to drive the smoking rate further down. Arnott said that the figures also serve as proof that the accusations of vaping critics that ecig use will only renormalize smoking are not really something to worry about.
ASH estimates that there are at least 2.1 million people in the UK now using electronic cigarettes. Chief scientific officer of ECITA, Tom Pruen remarked that new data are frequently and regularly released, but there remains nothing to support claims that vaping makes smoking once again normal.
