Call for annual charge on tobacco industry to fund health work in West Sussex

The figure was shared during a meeting of the full council late last month.

Members gave unanimous support to a notice of motion from Zack Ali (Con, Southgate & Gossops Green), which asked the council to support Cancer Research UK’s call for the government to launch a Smokefree Fund.

The fund would be a fixed annual charge on the tobacco industry – making it pay for the damage caused by its products – which would be used to fund local tobacco control work.

Councillors were told that 87,000 adults in the county still smoked – around 13 per cent – while seven per cent of 15 year olds also lit up.

Some 1,300 deaths were attributed to smoking each year, which is around 222 deaths per 100,000 in people aged 35 and over.

Councillors shared their own tales of friends and families lost to lung cancer and other smoking-related conditions.

Sean McDonald (Con, Northbrook) described how his sister lost her fight with cancer at the age of 48, spending her final six months in a hospice ‘awaiting death’.

He said: “I’m staggered by the number of people who still smoke.”

Smoking in enclosed public places has been banned since 2007 but Mr McDonald suggested the rules could be even more strict.

Pointing to the example of Costa Rica, where smoking is banned everywhere except in people’s own homes, he added: “In this country we still mollycoddle people – we have to have smoking areas outside hospitals, for goodness sake.”

Donna Johnson (Green and Independent Alliance, Selsey) said her mother’s latter years had be blighted with COPD as a direct result of smoking.

She added: “We have to remember that the health impacts of smoking limit people’s ability to be able to economically contribute to society properly.

“There’s evidence to suggest that if current ex-smokers had never smoked, the UK’s economy could be boosted by some £12billion each year.”

While there was full cross-party support for the motion, there was some disagreement over the wording.

The motion called on the government to ‘consider implementing a Smokefree Fund’ – but an amendment to drop the word ‘consider’ was voted down.