UK tops tobacco control index
Friday, February 21, 2020 at 10:06 
Readers hoping that the UK might take a more relaxed attitude to tobacco control now we are outside the EU are likely to be disappointed.
Successive UK governments have generally gone above and beyond the rest of Europe when it comes to tobacco control so it’s no surprise to see the UK retain its number one ranking in a Europe wide survey.
The Association of European Cancer Leagues, currently hosting the 8th European Conference on Tobacco or Health (ECToH) in Berlin, has ranked 36 European countries according to their tobacco control activity in 2019.
The Tobacco Control Scale, published yesterday, quantifies the implementation of eight tobacco control policies including price, public place bans, ad bans, health warnings, consumer information, and treatment to help smokers quit.
Points are allocated to each policy with price (maximum 30 points) and smoke free public places (22 points) given the most weighting.
The UK heads the ranking with 80 out of a possible 100 points, with France and Ireland close behind.
At the other end of the scale, ‘Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg continue to disappoint with extremely poor scores.’ Tut tut.
As a pointer to the next Tobacco Products Directive (TPD3) it’s pretty clear which way the wind is blowing in Europe if not in Britain where tobacco control is way ahead of the game:
“Plain packaging for cigarettes exists now in eight countries and should be the standard for all countries in the European Region,” states Luk Joossens, the main author of the Tobacco Control Scale.
Eight countries (UK, France, Ireland, Norway, Turkey, Slovenia, Belgium and Israel) have adopted and implemented plain packaging legislation. Hungary will implement its legislation in 2022, and the Netherlands and Denmark have agreed to introduce plain packaging very soon.
Other recommendations include a Europe-wide ban on the display of tobacco products at the point of sale and a ban on smoking in private cars when minors are present.
Given these policies are already in force in the UK you can see how far ‘advanced’ we are.
Naturally, the report also includes an ill-disguised plea for more money to keep the anti-smoking industry in business:
A major concern is the lack of funding for tobacco control. No country spends €2 per capita on tobacco control, with only Iceland coming close. The TCS scores for spending are extremely low and we are seeing reduced funding in several countries.
Btw, I’m sure the UK deserves its place at the top of the table but it’s worth noting that the UK’s policies were assessed by none other than Martin Dockrell (Public Health England), Deborah Arnott (ASH), Ailsa Rutter (Fresh, formerly Smokefree North East) and Debbie Storm (ASH Scotland).
When you think about it, that’s rather like being asked to mark your own homework. Who could have predicted such a result?!
Reader Comments (4)
I wonder when they will bite the bullet and go for prohibition ?
Tobacco control is a self-perpetuating enterprise. they manipulate demand by producing propaganda and suppressing dissent. The grift is incredibly lucrative and they aren't going toggle up power and profit without a fight.
Wow - the UK is the biggest bully in the world and proud of it??? Wow!
It’s true that the UK Government may not relax the bullying on smokers any more now that we are out of the EU, but at least being out of the EU means that they can if they want to, without falling foul of the instructions of their EU masters. Not, I’ll admit, that they have given much by way of indication that they intend to do so, but at least there’s now room for any party who is smart enough to spot that there’s a very significant number of utterly unrepresented voters out there in voter-land who are just waiting, pencils in hand, for a party – any party, within reason – who promises to give smokers a much fairer deal and also to pull the rampant tobacco controllers up sharply by their collars and put them back in their box. Although clearly Brexit was the major reason for UKIP’s surge in popularity in the run-up to the referendum (and, once it was over, probably the main reason for its slump since), I know that there were many smokers who voted for them almost as much for their promises to stop the bullying and unfairness as for their promises to get us out of the EU.
Smokers are still significant enough in number to make a big difference in very marginal seats. This may not occur to our present crop of MPs, who have been carefully steeped in anti-smoking mantras virtually from birth, but once we start to get a new crop of better ones (as we will have to do, over time, because they’ll actually have to run the country, rather than just letting the EU do all the boring stuff and formulate all the big policies), it’s very possible that we’ll get someone with enough functioning brain cells to notice that big, untapped “market” .....