10 years on from the smoking ban in England

3^rd July 2017 – Can you remember when a trip to the pub left your clothes and hair smelling like an ashtray?

This month marks 10 years since smokefree legislation was introduced in England. It followed similar regulations in the rest of the UK.

Scotland was first to go smokefree in March 2006. Wales and Northern Ireland were next in April 2007.

From the 1^st July 2007, smoking in enclosed workplaces and public places in England became illegal.

The days of ashtrays in the office and lighting up next to non-smokers during a night out were over. The ban ushered in a new sight of smokers huddled outside offices, pubs, clubs and restaurants getting a nicotine fix.

Local authorities in England were given the task of enforcing the ban. Within 18 months of implementation, inspectors found that 98.2% of premises were smokefree.

Kicking the smoking habit

According to Cancer Research UK, there are 1.9 million fewer smokers in Britain today compared to when the smoking ban was introduced. This means there are now around 8.3 million adult smokers in Britain.

Smoking rates among British adults of 16 and over were 20.9% in 2007. That had fallen to 16.1% by 2016.

The fall has been particularly marked among young smokers. Smoking rates among 16 to 24 year olds dropped from 26.1% to 16.6% over the same period.

Other factors have been responsible for the decline in smoking. Rises in tobacco duty have steadily pushed up the price of cigarettes. Point-of-sale display bans, introduced in supermarkets in 2012 – and in smaller shops 3 years later – have played their part.

'Denormalisation' of smoking

Anti-smoking campaigners expect that the more recent decision to put all cigarettes in plain, standardised packaging will make smoking less attractive.

The smokers' lobbying group, Forest, says there is little evidence that the smoking ban has had a significant impact on improving public health. According to its director, Simon Clark: "Smoking rates have fallen since the smoking ban but the only significant reduction took place after 2012 when e-cigarettes became increasingly popular."

But according to Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), smokefree legislation precipitated a change of public attitude in which smoking would no longer be taken for granted as an acceptable part of everyday life. Sir Harpal Kumar, Cancer Research UK's chief executive agrees. "As well as protecting people from the deadly effects of passive smoking, we've also seen big changes in public attitudes towards smoking he argues.

"It’s now far less socially acceptable and we hope this means fewer young people will fall into such a potentially lethal addiction."

Continued public support

And campaigners agree that few people want to turn back the clock.

A new poll for Cancer Research UK suggests that only 12% are in favour of reversing the smokefree legislation.

It found that 57% agree that the health of hospitality workers, such as bar staff and waiters, has improved, and 38% think it's been good for their own health.

The poll also suggests that approval is not confined to non-smokers. Twenty-percent of smokers said the ban had helped them cut down the number of cigarettes they smoke, and 14% say it helped them quit entirely.

The pro-smoking lobby say there is little appetite among the UK public for any further programme of anti-smoking measures. ASH, however, disagrees. It says 76% of people polled would like to see a licensing scheme for the sale of tobacco products, while 71% would like to see tobacco manufacturers charged a levy to pay for stop smoking programmes.