Preventing nicotine use before it starts

Prevention is a growing part of ASH Wales’s work. We bring together evidence, education, practical resources and partnerships to help children and young people grow up free from smoking, vaping and nicotine dependence.

Prevention is about acting before smoking, vaping or nicotine use becomes established. That means understanding what shapes young people’s choices, reducing the pressures and opportunities that encourage uptake, and making trusted information and support available to the adults around them.

For ASH Wales, prevention links policy, evidence, education and community action. It sits alongside helping people quit — because reaching a smokefree Wales depends on both.

Our prevention work connects young people, families, schools, professionals and organisations across Wales.

Good prevention starts with understanding what is happening now: who is using nicotine products, when use begins, how products are accessed, what pressures young people experience and where inequalities are greatest.

Connect with the Wales Prevention Network to share learning, strengthen partnerships and help shape practical prevention work across Wales.