Tobacco-free Ireland is ‘doable’

Making Ireland “tobacco-free” by 2025 “won’t be easy but is doable”, the Department of Health’s National Tobacco Control Advisor has told IMT.

Dr Fenton Howell, speaking in advance of his presentation on the Department’s recently released report ‘Tobacco Free Ireland’ at the RCPI Public Health Medicine Winter Scientific Meeting last week (December 11), recalled skepticism before the total smoking ban in workplaces was implemented in 2004.

“No-one believed it would happen and history speaks for itself,” the public health specialist commented.

‘Tobacco Free Ireland’ sets a target of 2025 for Ireland to become tobacco free, which means less than 5 per cent of the population smoking. Last year, Ireland had a prevalence rate of 22 per cent, according to the National Tobacco Control Office.  Dr Howell noted that the medical and dental professions in Ireland had a smoking prevalence of 4 per cent, and could already be termed tobacco free, but acknowledged some groups had particularly high prevalence and this would present “a challenge”.

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Source: Catherine Reilly, imt.ie, 08/01/14