BLACKBURN with Darwen health bosses last night signed up to a Lancashire-wide anti-tobacco strategy.

The move was hailed as a major step forward in the battle against smoking by Lancashire County Health boss Azhar Ali.

The blueprint is aimed at “making tobacco less desirable, acceptable and accessible in Lancashire” over three years to 2016.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Key aims are to:

  • stop the promotion of tobacco
  • make tobacco less affordable
  • effectively regulate tobacco products
  • help tobacco users to quit
  • stop exposure to second-hand smoke
  • to reduce health inequalities in Lancashire through reduced tobacco consumption.

Last night’s meeting of the Blackburn with Darwen Health and Wellbeing Board, a partnership between the borough council, NHS organisations and voluntary bodies, was given a series of statistics on smoking and East Lancashire.

It was told: “Smoking is the primary cause of preventable ill health and premature death from respiratory diseases, circulatory disease and cancer accounting for 2,212 deaths in adult aged 35 years and over each year in Lancashire alone.

“One in 20 of hospital admissions are smoking related and the estimated lifetime cost of treating a smoker with a smoking related disease in Lancashire is £15,121.

“Tobacco use remains one of the most significant public health challenges.

“While rates of smoking have continued to decline over the past decades, nationally one in five adults still smoke.

“However, smoking rates remain higher in Lancashire than England as a whole in adults, pregnant women, and young people.

“There are around 268,308 current adult smokers in Lancashire.

“However, two-thirds of smokers want to quit and welcome support to do so.”

In Blackburn with Darwen, 27.2 per cent of adults smoke compared to 21.2 per cent in the Lancashire county area, which includes Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle, Rossendale, Ribble Valley and Chorley.

The figures for young people smoking are 21 per cent in the borough and16 per cent across the county, against an England national average of 11 per cent.

Blackburn with Darwen council lead member for health, Brian Taylor, said: “This is a major step forward in the battle against this menace.”“Smoking rates are higher in the borough than elsewhere in Lancashire or England.”

Nelson South county councillor Ali, who has spearheaded the ‘Tobacco Free Lancashire’ blueprint, said: “This is an important stepping up of our strategy. We must work together across Lancashire.”