Rotherham smoking rates ‘significantly higher’ than national average

Approximately 16.9 per cent of Rotherham adults – around 35,400 people – were smokers in 2021 compared to 13 per cent nationally.

From 2017-19, there were 1,272 smoking attributable deaths in Rotherham – a rate of 271 deaths per 100,000 population.

This is higher than the England rate of 202 or the Yorkshire and the Humber rate of 239 deaths per 100,000 population.

Despite smoking cessation services being ‘highly cost effective’, spend on tobacco control per head of population fell by almost between 2013 and 2018 in Rotherham.

The report, to be presented to RMBC’s health and wellbeing board on January 25, adds that the amount spent on tobacco control services per person in Rotherham “is now lower than for all England, and other authorities in Rotherham’s deprivation decile”.

A tobacco control steering group, made up of public health and council officials, has developed a scheme to ensure Rotherham becomes somkefree by 2030.

This includes working with employers to help staff quit, provide smoking cessation support, and working withs schools to minimise the uptake ofsmoking and e-cigarette use.

The report adds that e-cigarettes can be an “effective harm reduction tool and quitting aid for existing smokers”, but adds that the consumption of nicotine “potentially has a detrimental impact on brain development” amongst children and adolescents.

“Although the available evidence does not suggest that trying vaping products leads to regular smoking, there is widespread concern that young people who develop a nicotine addiction through e-cigarette will go on to smoke.”