Health Impact

Tobacco is a uniquely dangerous consumer product.  In fact it is likely to be the only product, that if used according to the instructions, has the potential to kill you. Smoking is the greatest single cause of preventable death in the UK, killing an estimated 106,000 people every year (estimate for England is 86,500) - that's 13 people every hour.

Smoking is still killing thousands of people a week in the UK.

Smoking is a root cause of health inequality with the highest incidence of smoking related deaths being in the most disadvantaged areas.  The prevalence of cigarette smoking is generally higher for people in manual than non-manual socio economic groups (32% compared with 21% nationally)

Reducing the harm caused by secondhand tobacco smoke poses one of our greatest challenges. Since the 1990s the knowledge of the dangers of secondhand tobacco smoke (SHS) continues to accumulate and it is now well established that SHS causes a wide range of diseases including lung cancer, coronary vascular disease and chronic respiratory problems. People in manual occupations are more likely to be exposed to secondhand smoke, and to experience workplaces polluted by second hand smoke .