Secondhand Smoke

A key part of tackling the health risks of smoking is protecting smokers and non-smokers from tobacco smoke. Breathing in other people’s tobacco smoke (also known as secondhand smoke, passive smoking or environmental tobacco smoke) is a health hazard and unpleasant. See here for more details

Smoking and Pregnancy
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Worried Campaign
New NHS ‘Scared’ TV advertising campaign portrays children’s fear of parents dying due to smoking

Smoking remains one of the most challenging public health issues we face – causing 2,000 deaths in England every week.

Teenagers could play a part in getting their parents to quit the habit, according to a recent survey which shows that two-thirds of them are worried by mum and dad smoking.

Starting on 23 February, ‘Worried’ is the second stage of a tobacco control campaign which aims to motivate smokers to stop by making them aware of how much their loved ones worry about the consequences of them smoking.

‘Worried’ builds on part one of the campaign – called ‘Scared’ – which launched around Halloween last year, and will be promoted on TV, radio, the internet and in national newspapers.

Full details of the campaign can be found on the smokefree resource centre

Every week 2,000 people die from smoking related diseases, which has a potentially devastating effect on children’s lives, according to a powerful new Smokefree TV advertising campaign launched today by the Department of Health.
The TV advert, which will be broadcast from this evening (Halloween), opens on a darkened child’s bedroom. A young girl is heard saying “I’m not scared of the dark”. The ad then cuts through a series of other images such as a crawling spider and the leering face of a clown, with the young girl saying “I’m not scared of spiders”, “I’m not scared of clowns”.

The ad ends with a group of young mums who are chatting together and smoking; the girl says “I’m scared of my mum smoking”. One of the mums turns and smiles at the camera and the girl says “I’m scared that my mum will die”.

The adverts will be timed to air in the early evening when both parents and their children are most likely to be watching together, to trigger discussion and motivate parents to use local NHS Stop Smoking Services, which are proven to make stopping smoking up to four times more likely. The NHS Smoking Helpline can be reached on 0800 169 0169.

Beelin Baxter, Regional Tobacco Policy Manager for the East of England, said:

“Our service advisors speak to lots of parents who know that their smoking has a negative impact on their children, not just through secondhand smoke but because their kids are scared for their mum or dad’s health.

“Local NHS Stop Smoking Services are here to help anyone who wants to stop smoking, making it up to four times more likely you’ll stop smoking successfully.”