A plan to reduce cigarette smoking in Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare was introduced yesterday by the Eastern Health Board. The goal is a non-smoker rate of 80 per cent in people aged over 15.
The EHB chief executive officer, Mr Pat McLoughlin, said the aim was to reduce the percentage of the region's population who smoked by 1 per cent a year. Help
would be offered to those who wished to quit, while young people would be encouraged not to start smoking.
Mr McLoughlin told a tobacco control seminar, organised by the EHB's health promotion department, that 31 per cent of Irish people aged 18 years or over were regular or occasional cigarette smokers. The prevalence of smoking had been found to be higher in adults in Dublin compared to the national figures.
In addition, a 1998 survey of health behaviour in schoolchildren in the EHB area showed that over 50 per cent of children aged 10 to 18 had smoked tobacco.
He said the strategy aimed to help smokers who wished to quit through counselling. It also planned to support the rights of non-smokers to a smoke-free environment and reduce the number of young people taking up smoking through education campaigns and skills development. "In addition, tobacco control and smoking cessation interventions are in place throughout workplaces, schools, communities and health services within our board," Mr McLoughlin told the seminar.
"However, the real challenge is increasing our collaboration with the private sector and statutory bodies. "We have had a very positive response from the Vintners' Federation of Ireland to our public houses project, which encourages pubs in our region to provide the choice of smoke-free areas, particularly in eating areas."
The role of the EHB was expanding to include lobbying for better legislation, enforcement of restrictions on advertising and sales and developing advocacy skills.
Ms Valerie Coghlan, of the lobby group Ash Ireland, said international evidence from all income levels showed that cigarette price rises reduced demand. Ms Niamh O Rourke, EHB assistant health promotion officer (tobacco control), told the seminar: "Tobacco products have no safe level of consumption. They are the only legal consumer product that causes ill-health and premature death when used exactly as the manufacturer intended."