England: Number of Young Smokers Up During Lockdown

The number of young adults who smoke in England rose by about a quarter in the first lockdown, reports The Guardian, citing new research from University College London (UCL) and the University of Sheffield said. At the same time, the number of people who quit smoking nearly doubled across all groups.

“The first lockdown was unprecedented in the way it changed people’s day-to-day lives. We found that many smokers took this opportunity to stop smoking, which is fantastic,” said Sarah Jackson, the lead author and a principal research fellow at UCL.

“However, the first lockdown was also a period of great stress for many people, and we saw rates of smoking and risky drinking increase among groups hardest hit by the pandemic.”

While the widespread belief that smoking and drinking relieved stress could be a factor in the apparent increased prevalence among people aged 18 to 34 years, the researchers pointed out that their data did not indicate what the causes may be.

Doug Mutter, director at U.K. vaping specialist VPZ, warned that the country is now in danger of missing its 2030 smoke free targets.

“Smoking statistics are continuing to rise as the pandemic has triggered an increase in smoking rates and the public health problem has been compounded by funding cuts for NHS stop smoking services and local support groups,” he said.

“There has been a lack of funding and joined up strategy to tackle smoking and we are now sleep-walking into another public health crisis with a new generation of smokers being consigned to an early death or serious disease.

Mutter pointed to a new report from Royal College of Physicians Tobacco Advisory Group, which backs vaping as an effective treatment for tobacco dependency and recommends that it should be included and encouraged in all treatment pathways.

A VPZ consumer survey from September 2020 found that among the 14,000 smokers served:

• 25 percent of people said they were unable to buy their vaping products because of store closures.
• 26 percent of smokers said they has increased the number of cigarettes they smoked during lockdown
• 65 percent of people claimed they received no advice during lockdown of the best ways to quit smoking, through either NHS or online resources.
• 58 percent of people said they did not feel healthier coming out of the initial lockdown.
• 45 percent of people said their mental health was affected during the lockdown.