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Smoking During Pregnancy

Newcastle has made significant progress on this issue over the last five years. The current prevalence is 18%.  (Table 2). However, in general, higher percentages of women smoke throughout pregnancy in areas with higher levels of deprivation.

• A public consultation by the Department of Health on a comprehensive 25 year strategy for tobacco control was completed in September. The proposed strategy set out a wide range of measures to effectively tackle tobacco, including new measures on harm reduction and legislation relating to reduce the marketing of tobacco products to young people. The new tobacco control strategy is awaited.

• Compliance with smoke free legislation in Newcastle has been above the national average of over 99% both for signage and management response to prevent smoking in a smoke free area.
• The recent fall in smoking prevalence among the whole population in the UK would suggest that the stranded approach to tobacco control, which has clear measures in place at a local, regional and national level is effective. Indeed international evidence supports the approach being taken. The prevalence rate in the NE has fallen faster than in any other region.

• Smoking prevalence will not show a significant decline in Newcastle.  As smoking is the single most important preventable cause of ill health and early deaths, this is likely to increase the health inequality gap between Newcastle and England as a whole. In addition, as smoking prevalence is known to be higher among lower socio economic groups health inequalities within Newcastle will increase.
• Young people may continue to take up smoking if the cultural norm in Newcastle does not shift towards 'not smoking'

• There are gaps in our knowledge and understanding of why smoking prevalence is higher in deprived communities. Though one in 7 smokers wants to quit, the success rate of quitting at 4 weeks in  the more deprived areas tend to be lower than in the more affluent areas.
• There are gaps in our understanding and information in relation to  smokers using cheap and illicit tobacco and about what would help them to quit. This information could help to inform a social marketing approach to tackle the issue. Fresh is has initiated some work on this.