Cancer Research UK: Tobacco kills one person every five minutes

Today’s news, June 1: According to a new analysis by Cancer Research UK (CRUK), tobacco causes one death every five minutes in the UK.

Although smoking rates have declined in recent years, it remains the leading cause of cancer and death in the UK. It is estimated that 55,000 people in the UK die from cancer each year due to tobacco, accounting for more than a quarter (28%) of all cancer deaths.

To mark today’s World No Tobacco Day, CRUK has launched a petition calling on people to urge the Prime Minister to establish a smokefree fund to help pay for tobacco control measures, which it says are severely underfunded.

CRUK said the recently announced tax on the gambling industry sets a precedent for having industries fund a smokefree initiative, and shows that the UK government can take such measures.

England, Scotland, and Wales are not on track to meet their smokefree targets as planned—reducing the proportion of adults who smoke to below 5% by the end of this decade. Northern Ireland is currently the only nation in the UK without an official target.

In 2021, 13.3% of people aged 18 and over in the UK smoked, equivalent to about 6.6 million people. According to estimates from the UK Office for National Statistics, this was the lowest proportion of current smokers since records began in 2011.

Last month, Conservative public health minister Neil O'Brien responded to the independent review of tobacco control led last year by Dr. Javed Khan. The UK government commissioned Dr. Khan to help determine what measures should be implemented to achieve its own goal of making the UK smokefree by 2030—a target that CRUK modeling shows is currently 9 years off track.

These recommendations include a world-first national quit-smoking program designed to provide 1 million smokers with e-cigarette starter kits for more than two years, along with behavioral support to help them quit smoking.

CRUK said the current death rate is alarming, based on nearly 125,000 tobacco-related deaths across all age groups in the UK in 2019.

Chief Executive Michelle Mitchell said that since the UK government’s inadequate response to the Khan Review last month, around 17,100 people across the UK have needlessly lost their lives to tobacco. Of these, more than 7,600 died from cancer alone.

“Our supporters tell us they want the UK government to urgently provide the vital funding needed to tackle the leading cause of cancer and save countless lives.”

“Enough is enough. We are calling on our supporters to sign a petition with us, which we will deliver to the Prime Minister, urging him to take bold and decisive action to achieve a smokefree UK.”

CRUK said that taking action to help smokers quit and prevent others from starting would enable the Prime Minister to deliver on an important pledge to cut NHS waiting lists— in England alone, one person is admitted to hospital every minute because of smoking. Smoking also carries enormous economic costs, draining around £20.6 billion from UK public finances every year.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “We are committed to achieving our smokefree ambition by 2030 and have recently announced new measures to help more smokers quit. These include a national ‘swap to stop’ scheme and financial incentives to help pregnant women stop smoking. We also plan to consult on the introduction of mandatory cigarette pack inserts to provide information about the benefits of quitting and direct access to available support.”

“With £58 million of support over the next two years, our new plans will help more people quit smoking—saving lives and reducing NHS waiting times in the process.”