Adult smokers - 1996 statistics (mainly General Household Survey)

• 31% of women and 33% of men in Scotland were regular cigarette smokers - more than in either England or Wales
• this compared to 28% of women and 29% of men in Great Britain
• Smoking accounts for one fifth of deaths in the UK - 120 000 people a year (Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health, 1998),
• Smoking rates among professional workers have halved over the past twenty years, but smoking is now concentrated among low income groups. Roughly half of the men and women in the lowest income quarter in Scotland (49%) smoke, a figure which has hardly changed since the 1970s.
• smoking doesn’t relieve stress and anxiety levels (Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health, 1998), but quitting smoking does.

  Smoking among secondary school pupils - (1996 ONS Survey)

• in 1996, 5% of 12 year old boys and 4% of 12 year old girls in Scotland were regular smokers (smoking one or more cigarette a week)
• by the age of 15, 30% of boys and girls were smoking regularly
• two thirds of current underage smokers said they regularly bought their cigarettes from a newsagents or tobacconists shop, and over half said cigarettes were given to them by friends

  Passive smoking

• in the 1995 Scottish Health Survey, 32% of men and 20% of women said they were exposed to passive smoking (breathing other people’s smoke) at work. 22% of men and 23% of women said they were exposed to passive smoking at home.
• the 1998 SCOTH report stated that exposure to environmental tobacco smoke ‘represents a substantial public health hazard’ and is a cause of lung cancer and ischaemic heart disease. It recommended that smoking should be restricted in public places, and where possible should not be allowed in the workplace.