Tobacco costs Hertfordshire £300m a year, says new strategy

Public health officials estimate that smoking costs Hertfordshire a staggering £300 million a year.

That’s the estimated cost of NHS treatment for smoking-related disease, social care, services to help people quit, loss of productivity to businesses and enforcement costs for illicit tobacco in the county.

And it is a figure that’s highlighted in the county’s five-year Hertfordshire Tobacco Control Strategy 2023-28, that was endorsed by a meeting of the county council's cabinet on Monday (10 July).

According to the strategy smoking rates in Hertfordshire are around 11.5 per cent – which is slightly lower than the 13 per cent rate in England.

But behind the overall figures are a number of health inequalities associated with tobacco.

According to national data in the strategy, smoking levels amongst ‘routine and manual’ populations are around double the overall Hertfordshire figure, at around 24 per cent.

And, it suggests, around 42 per cent of people with alcohol problems smoke and 43 per cent of people with severe mental illness.

But in those populations where there is drug use, it suggests smoking levels are in excess of 70 per cent.

And the latest strategy deliberately sets out to reduce smoking prevalence and the health inequalities associated with tobacco – as well as raising the profile of the harm caused in Hertfordshire.

Presenting the strategy, executive member for public health and community safety Councillor Morris Bright highlighted the astonishing costs that smoking creates for the county.

“It is estimated that the cost to Hertfordshire from smoking is approximately £300 million a year,” he said.

“So, the more that we can do to help bring down smoking and associated habits the better.”

Councillor Bright said smokers in the county were encouraged to move to vaping and then to give-up vaping in a two-stage withdrawal.

And he reported the quit rate that had remained in excess of 50 per cent over the past four years – even during the pandemic.

He also acknowledged the concerns of parents around smoking and acknowledged work to educate young people about the harms of tobacco – to prevent them from taking up smoking at all.

And he highlighted the work of trading standards officers who had seized 40,000 cigarettes and almost 12,000 vapes last year – some of which, he said, could have be dangerous if used.

The strategy also highlights the county’s ‘Love Your Bump’ campaign which has reduced rates of smoking in pregnancy to 6.1 per cent – with the aim of reducing that further to five.

And this was welcomed by former midwife Councillor Fiona Thomson, who is deputy county council leader.

“As a former midwife, I am very pleased to see the reduction in the number of women known to be smoking at the time of delivery,” she said.

“And the ‘love your bump’ campaign that is critically important. I am delighted to see that retained as a priority, because clearly the health impacts are significant.”

Also referenced at the meeting was the county council’s decision to make all its buildings smokefree in 2020.