United Kingdom: frontrunner in the fight against smoking
The British are known for enjoying pubs after work. And a cigarette goes very well with beer, you would think. Yet the opposite is true in the UK! The percentage of smokers in this country is currently around 14 percent. The smokers are discouraged, among other things, by the price of a pack of cigarettes. It is currently around 15 euros (17 USD).
They started early on in the UK. Around 2005 the first anti-smoking campaigns were started up. The smoking ban in the pubs has also been in place since 2007. How did the smokers deal with this measure? They shrugged and went outside to smoke from then on.
A plan has been drawn up in England under the name ‘to a smoke-free generation‘. One of the measures in this plan is to make cigarettes more expensive. Educational measures about the risks of smoking for pregnant women are part of the package too. Because even though the UK is very far ahead of other countries, around 10 percent of pregnant women in this country smoke during pregnancy. There is still room for improvement!