Public Health

Smoking is widely accepted to be a behaviour that has one of the worst effects on the health of our communities. It increases the risks of suffering serious illness and premature death.

Cigarettes are the main cause of death for about half of all long-term smokers. They are a major contributor to increased morbidity in others.

Smoking causes conditions ranging from cancers, vascular disease, respiratory diseases, dementia, rheumatoid arthritis, sight loss, and events such as heart attacks and strokes.

Worldwide, tobacco control policies focus on:

1. making smoking less affordable
2. regulating tobacco products more effectively
3. reducing exposure to second hand smoke
4. stopping the promotion of tobacco products
5. helping smokers to quit
6. effective communications for tobacco control

To achieve a smokefree Thurrock, there is a need to:

• prevent the uptake of smoking among young people
• reduce the supply and demand of illicit tobacco through regulation and enforcement
• reduce exposure to secondhand smoke by creating smokefree environments
• support people to stop smoking in communities where smoking rates are higher than the wider population

The priorities for this strategy are therefore:

• prevention
• smokefree environments
• help smokers to quit
• communication, evaluation, adaptation

You can download the full strategy for 2023 to 2028 below.