MHF backs coalition for a smoke-free future

The Smokefree Action Coalition, of which the MHF is a member, is urging health campaigners to respond to the government's tobacco control consultation which is currently taking place.

The consultation process, which ends on 8 September, is the first step in developing a new national tobacco control strategy. It covers four main areas:

Reducing smoking rates and health inequalities caused by smoking: including trends in smoking prevalence, regional patterns and health inequalities and tackling the supply of cheap illegal tobacco in our communities.
Protecting children and young people from smoking: reducing young people's access to tobacco, reducing exposure to tobacco promotion, and protecting children from secondhand smoke to prevent future generations suffering poor health caused by tobacco.
Supporting smokers to quit: including NHS stop smoking support, increasing access to, and take-up of, quit services among high smoking prevalence groups, supporting young smokers to quit, supporting pregnant smokers to quit, and how best practice can be best shared.
Helping those who cannot quit: considering the potential of a harm reduction approach in tobacco control to help people whose addiction to nicotine makes it extremely difficult to quit altogether.

The easiest way to show your support is to send the Smokefree Action Coalition e-card to health secretary Alan Johnson.