We are not equal when it comes to passive smoking at home

A report from the NGO Action on Smoking Health (ASH)^[1] highlights the role of social inequalities in exposure to passive smoking at home.

According to the report, smoking at home is far more common in social housing than in other types of housing. While 18% of Britons live in social housing, a third of smokers live in this type of housing. What this means is that the prevalence of smokers in social housing is far higher than in other types of housing.

The report explains that this prevalence is not linked to a lack of motivation to quit smoking: in fact, smokers living in social housing have just as much intention to quit smoking as the rest of smokers. However, the number of failures among the former is higher than for the rest of the smoking population.

The NGO Action on Smoking Health concludes that combating smoking in communities with a high prevalence of the epidemic helps reduce health inequalities not only within the household but also throughout the community. Financial inequalities are also being combated: quitting smoking saves significant amounts of money for the household (link to an article on the subject).