SMOKERS ARE being “ripped off” when attempting to stop using tobacco because of the failure of the State to provide adequate support services, a leading healthcare professional claimed yesterday.
Delegates at a major conference on tobacco control held in Dublin’s Mansion House were told that properly funded smoking cessation services are needed to help encourage smokers to quit.
Dr Fenton Howell, director of public health with the HSE, said the lack of proven cessation services was leading smokers to spend money on alternatives which were non-effective.
“There is a gap in what we should be providing, and others are filling that gap and taking money from individuals who then fail to stop smoking and come to believe they can’t quit,” said Dr Howell. “We know that there are lots of different bodies out there who are, in fairness to them, ripping people off on non-cost effective methodology,” he added.
The Working Together towards a Tobacco Free Society conference was organised by a number of agencies including the Irish Cancer Society, the HSE, Ash Ireland and the Environmental Health Officers’ Association.
Keynote speaker Dr Tony Holohan, chief medical officer at the Department of Health, told delegates that while Ireland had developed a reputation for forward thinking in terms of tobacco control, there were still “stubbornly high rates” of tobacco use in Ireland, particularly among young people.
Dr Holohan said the burden of tobacco consumption and its impact falls disproportionately on people from lower socio-economic backgrounds, and that such people were the least likely to seek support to help them stop smoking.
It is estimated that about 7,000 people die from tobacco use in Ireland every year.
Speakers at the conference also heard calls for an increase in taxes on cigarettes, a full ban on smoking in cars and hospitals and for concerted action on tobacco smuggling.
