UK: Eight million deaths from smoking since 1971

Smoking is estimated to have killed nearly eight million people in the UK over the past 50 years. Without more action to combat smoking, an additional two million people could become victims of smoking over the next two decades, according to an analysis published by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), which is calling on governments to take action against this industrial epidemic.[1].

This estimate was made by Professor Richard Peto, an epidemiologist and statistician who had previously collaborated with Richard Doll on the health risks of smoking. In the 1950s, Doll was one of the first scientists to establish the impact of smoking on health.

Seven years behind schedule for UK's first smoke-free generation

According to modelling by Professor Richard Peto, current smoking trends show that the UK is at serious risk of missing its major public health target: becoming a smoke-free country by 2030. Forecasts predict a seven-year delay, and more than double that for the poorest sections of the population. For Deborah Arnott, CEO of ASH, while the goal of tackling smoking is shared by the government, some of the measures announced have still not been implemented, such as the introduction of a polluter-pays tax on the tobacco industry. Generally speaking, around the notion of the "endgame", similar to the goal of a smoke-free generation, all the supply-side measures are played out, which were relatively little developed in the version of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), but which the treaty itself called for development.

FT

[1] Action on Smoking and Health, ASH at 50: Nearly 8 million lives in the UK lost due to tobacco since 1971, 02/12/2021, (accessed 06/12/2021)