Securing public health legislation is difficult. One thing which inhibits or facilitates this is the extent to which the public supports measures. Between 2021 and 2023, public support for action on smoking and vaping has significantly grown which should give the government confidence to pursue a bold agenda on tackling these products. For context: Smoking remains a great concern, contributing significantly to premature death and health disparities. It is the leading cause of differences in healthy life expectancy between rich and poor. Most people who smoke started in their teenage years. The Smokefree Generation policy, a cornerstone of the broader Tobacco and Vapes Bill, aims to tackle this by gradually raising the tobacco sales age – by one year every year – until smoking is phased out entirely. The bill also provides power to the government to reduce the appeal and availability of e-cigarettes, such as regulating flavours, content, packaging, product presentation, and point of sale displays of the products. What is the research about? Our cross-sectional survey, conducted in September 2021, October 2022, and October 2023, asked 6,541 adults across Great Britain whether they supported such policies. The data were drawn from the ongoing Smoking and Alcohol Toolkit Study which collects data from roughly 2,450 adults each month living in Great Britain. Notably, support for the Smokefree Generation policy saw the biggest increase between 2021 and 2023. The proportion of people who opposed the Smokefree Generation policy decreased from year to year, while a similar proportion remained indecisive. Over time, smokers and non-smokers came closer together and were similarly supportive of the Smokefree Generation policy in 2023. Restricting e-cigarette marketing was the most popular policy each year, reaching 85% support in 2023. In contrast, only 8% opposed the policy in 2023. Recent events show the timeliness of our study. In October 2023, when the most recent data were collected, Rishi Sunak, the UK Prime Minister at the time, announced the measures included in the Tobacco and Vapes bill. Our results suggest that if policymakers act on these measures, public support could grow further. However, it is crucial to acknowledge that even strong public backing does not mean these policy proposals will become law. For example, in New Zealand, the previous government planned to introduce a Smokefree Generation policy and received widespread support from the population. Nevertheless, a new government decided to revoke the policy, potentially due to industry interference. What has happened since then? Since its announcement in October 2023, the bill made swift progress, passing a second reading in Parliament, and received scrutiny by a specially appointed committee of MPs (Public Bill Committee). It was on track to be passed before the summer recess. However, the snap election called for the 4th of July 2024 meant that the bill ran out of time to be passed before the dissolution of the Parliament. Now, the fate of the bill lies in the hands of the new government. Both, Conservatives and Labour, backed the bill in their campaigns. Why does it matter? The potential implications of the bill are enormous. It can offer a path towards a smokefree future for all. Currently, about 14% of adults smoke in Great Britain. As most of them started smoking when they were young, the Smokefree Generation policy presents a unique opportunity to reduce smoking rates, and the burden on the health and social system, and productivity losses to the economy (because fewer people would be absent from work due to sickness). It also has the ability to reduce differences in in healthy life expectancy between rich and poor. The bill as drafted would also have given power to the government to regulate content, branding, and point of sale displays of e-cigarettes. This is important and urgently needed because e-cigarettes are currently marketed in ways that make them particularly appealing to children and teenagers. E-cigarettes are appropriate to help people quit smoking, but they should not be marketed to non-smokers, especially underaged. Therefore, it is crucial that the newly elected government will bring the bill back to the parliament as soon as possible. In summary: We have seen increasing public support for measures to curb smoking and youth vaping. These measures include the Smokefree Generation policy that is now supported by most people in Great Britain. It is important to ensure that the new government will follow the public opinion and bring the Tobacco and Vapes Bill to a vote in parliament again. The bill has the potential to be a major milestone on the path to a Smokefree Future for all. Do you want to find out more? The full research article: https://doi.org/10.1136/tc-2023-058571. Information about the Tobacco and Vapes Bill from the UK Government website: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tobacco-and-vapes-bill-2024. A poll commissioned by Action on Smoking and Health showing the most recent public support data for the Smokefree Generation policy in June 2024: https://ash.org.uk/media-centre/news/press-releases/new-poll-shows-every-parliamentary-constituency-in-great-britain-backs-phasing-out-sale-of-tobacco. About the author: Vera Buss is a research fellow at UCL’s Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group and a member of the SPECTRUM Research Consortium. Her current research focusses on tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption. She uses data from the Smoking and Alcohol Toolkit Study (https://smokinginengland.info/ and https://alcoholinengland.info/) to evaluate and track national tobacco and alcohol control policies. Her research profile can be fund via this link: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/91285-vera-buss/about. You can follow her research via Twitter @VeraBuss. This article was published on 2024-07-12
