News item 

Your PCT / News / Health chiefs join fight to tackle tobacco

Health chiefs join fight to tackle tobacco

14 October 2011

 

Two of Bolton’s health bosses have pledged to do all they can to protect children from the harmful effects of tobacco.

Bolton’s Director of Public Health, Jan Hutchinson, and Bolton Council’s executive member for health, Linda Thomas, both attended a national conference on Tuesday (11/10) and signed a pledge to join the fight to make smoking history for children.

The conference was attended by public health minister Anne Milton and leading local authority figures.

From April 2013, local authorities will be wholly responsible for public health and tackling tobacco will be a key priority.

Smoking costs communities hugely, not only in terms of health impacts and costs to the NHS, but also in terms of fires, litter, lost days at work and productivity.

A tool that has been developed to calculate the impacts estimates that the overall cost to Bolton is £79.4million.

Jan Hutchinson said: “Despite some big improvements during the last decade to reduce the amount of people who smoke, it is still a huge issue and children are still badly affected by it.

“The dangers to children are very clear: doctors in England deal with 34,000 visits every year from children who are exposed to secondhand smoke.

“By joining forces we can do more to protect future generations from the harmful effects of tobacco.”

Councillor Linda Thomas said: “Bolton Council’s Executive Member for Corporate Resources and Health, Councillor Linda Thomas, said: “We are doing all we can to work together to tackle the issue of smoking as there is no denying that it is detrimental to people’s health.

“By signing this pledge we are making a commitment to the borough’s residents – particularly young people – that we will continue in the fight to create a healthier environment for the future and hopefully discourage them from starting smoking at a young age.”

Anne Milton, Minister for Public Health, said: “Smoking remains one of our biggest public health challenges.

“Much progress has been made but we need to reinvigorate efforts at all levels including persuading people not to ever start smoking - local authorities are ideally placed to do this.

“The creation of Public Health England will also help achieve this.”

Photo: Jan Hutchinson, Director of Public Health at NHS Bolton, pledges to tackle tobacco.