The UK Government have yet decide on introducing standardised packaging. IPH in our most recent response to the UK 2014 consultation (7 August 2014) continue to recommend and support the introduction of standardised packaging and are pleased that the Northern Ireland Assembly gave legislative consent to be included in the UK Children and Families Bill Amendments in February 2014.
Enhanced tobacco control policies and programmes are an important component of any strategic approach to improving population health and tackling health inequalities. IPH supports comprehensive and effective evidence-based tobacco control measures and works to support the Ten-Year Tobacco Control Strategy for Northern Ireland published in 2012.
In Northern Ireland, an estimated 2,311 deaths in 2010 have been attributed to smoking (DHSSPS, 2013:19). Smoking-related deaths are heavily concentrated in deprived areas of Northern Ireland – the rate in the most deprived areas being roughly double that of the least deprived (DHSSPS and NIRSA, 2012). The female lung cancer rate in deprived areas was 76% higher than the rate for Northern Ireland as a whole (DHSSPS and NIRSA, 2012). This inequality gap is widening as higher socioeconomic groups are quitting smoking, while lower socioeconomic groups are not doing so in equal numbers (DHSSPS, 2012). Tobacco-related harm in Northern Ireland extends beyond the issue of tobacco-related deaths and is integral to the epidemic of chronic disease that is now evident on the island of Ireland and across the UK (IPH, 2012).
