Nearly 400,000 Less Smokers in 40 Years as ASH Wales Celebrates Birthday

Wales’s leading tobacco control action group ASH Wales Cymru celebrates 40 years of campaigning today (Tues 27th Sept) as figures reveal nearly 400,000 less smokers in Wales than in 1976.

To mark the event Welsh celebrity artist Nathan Wyburn has created a self-portrait made entirely from cigarette butts picked up by children from Welsh beaches.

The portrait will be unveiled at the Pierhead Building in Cardiff Bay on Tuesday in front of Assembly Members, government officials and health professionals.

ASH Wales is the leading campaign group in Wales and raises awareness of the health, social and economic effects of smoking by working with communities, young people and partners across the country.

Founded in Wales in 1976, ASH Wales was created in reaction to more scientific evidence coming to light around the life-limiting damage smoking does to the body.

Smoking prevalence has fallen be over half, from 40% in the 1970s to around 19% today. This is due to the strong policy and social changes which ASH Wales has worked to implement, such as; a ban on smoking in public places, a ban on smoking in a car when a young person is present and, most recently, signing every council in Wales up to making their children’s playgrounds smokefree places.

The portrait by Welsh celebrity artist and Britain’s Got Talent finalist Nathan Wyburn was unveiled by children from Ysgol Y Ddraig, Llantwit Major who took part in the litter pick.

Made entirely from used cigarette butts and smoking litter, Nathan, who is known for his work with unconventional materials, said; “I decided to help support ASH Wales because I strongly believe that anywhere that children play should be a smoking free zone. Whether it’s beaches, play areas, sports grounds and most importantly school gates.”

“The amount of cigarette butts the young volunteers collected for me from Llantwit beach last week is quite frankly horrifying and just cements my support and feelings even more. I have a young sister and young nieces and nephews in my family and I don’t want them growing up in such unhealthy environments.”

In reference to his work, he continued, “I know it’s unattractive, in fact it’s gross, I really wanted it to be, it needs to be.”

Chief Executive of ASH Wales, Suzanne Cass, said; “It’s fantastic to able to today celebrate ASH Wales’ monumental successes over the past 40 years. Thanks to the organisation, more Welsh people are healthier, happier and living longer without the tragic and often catastrophic harm smoking causes to individuals and families. A testament to our work would be for ASH Wales to no longer exist in another 40 years!”

“There are still 5,605 smoking related deaths and 28,607 smoking related hospital admissions every year. There is a marked difference in smoking rates between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ which is a real cause for concern. It is imperative we now engage these communities as much as we can and support them every step of the way.”

Llantwit School Children Join Global Call for Tougher Smoking Rules

Primary school pupils in Llantwit Major have been picking up cigarette butts from a local beach to mark World Environmental Health Day. (Monday 26th Sept)

World Environmental Health Day, run by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, is calling for tougher smoking regulations to maintain and enhance smokefree environments, especially around children.

Wales’s leading campaigners for tobacco control, ASH Wales Cymru, and pupils from ‘eco school’ Ysgol Y Ddraig spent today at Llantwit Major beach collecting discarded butts.

Young people are highly influenced by others smoking around them – those with a parent who smokes are 70% more likely to take up the habit.

Two thirds of adult smokers took up the habit before they left their teenage years. Banning smoking in child-friendly areas ‘denormalises’ this killer habit.

ASH Wales arranged the litter pick in conjunction with their successful ‘Smokefree Spaces’ initiative. The campaign aims to see more areas, such as beaches and school gates, become smokefree areas to protect children’s health.

As of spring 2016, every council in Wales implemented a voluntary ban on smoking within children’s playgrounds.
Cigarette smoke pollutes the air but these plastic butts don’t biodegrade and contain poisonous toxins which pollute our waterways, as well as endangering wildlife who mistake them for food.

Cigarette litter is the number one most littered thing in the world with 4.5 trillion butts being discarded every year.

The used butts will be recycled to create a self-portrait by Welsh artist Nathan Wyburn. The portrait will be unveiled on Tuesday 27th September at the Pierhead, Cardiff Bay.

Julie Barratt, Director of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health Wales who are overseeing World Environmental Health Day in Wales said; “We know that children learn behaviour from what they see. By taking smoking out of environments where they play, such as playgrounds and beaches or where they interact with adults, such as school gates, they will not be exposed to the message that smoking is normal behaviour. The CIEH strongly endorses No Smoking Zones in such places and encourages organisations in both the public and private sector to engage with us and with ASH Wales in promoting them.”

Suzanne Cass, Chief Executive of ASH Wales Cymru, said; “World Environmental Health Day is a fantastic opportunity for children to stand-up and say ‘no!’ to this deadly habit being in areas they like to play.  It is imperative we protect our future generations from seeing smoking as a ‘normal’ thing when in fact it kills 50% of its long term users.”

“We believe Wales can lead the way in the UK on smokefree spaces. With the support and cooperation of local councils and the public we can make a significant difference to the health and wellbeing of young people.”

Cardiff Barrage Playground Launched As Officially Smokefree

The last playground in Cardiff to become officially smokefree will be launched by families today as they unveil new signage at the Cardiff Bay Barrage playground.

Families from Flying Start Cardiff, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and Cardiff Council have come together to unveil the final sign making every playground in Cardiff officially smokefree.

In 2013, tobacco control campaign group ASH Wales Cymru launched a ‘Smokefree Playgrounds Initiative’ where they asked all local authorities across Wales to introduce smokefree playgrounds within their area.

In March 2013, Cardiff Council became the 3rd local authority in Wales, out of 22, to pledge to make all of their children’s playgrounds smokefree areas.

Today’s unveiling of the final sign was the perfect opportunity to celebrate every playground in Cardiff officially becoming smokefree. Families from Flying Start, a Welsh Government-funded programme which supports families with young children from deprived areas, will at the event showing their support.

The smokefree playgrounds campaign empowered children all across Wales to reclaim these spaces, which have been created specifically for them, from this deadly and adult habit.

School children designed the signage through local competitions with the winning design being displayed at every playground in the local authority.

Although smoking rates are dropping across Cardiff and the Vale and are currently at 19%, they remain stubbornly high in deprived areas, reaching up to 29%.

Suzanne Cass, Chief Executive of ASH Wales Cymru, said: “Smoking in family-friendly areas sends children a message that tobacco is a common part of life rather than a deadly addictive drug.

Alongside this, cigarette butts can take up to 12 years to biodegrade, posing a danger to animals and young children who may ingest them in the meantime. And that’s not even counting the boxes, cellophane, lighters, matches, matchboxes, paper or pouches that also blight our parks and playgrounds and cost money to clean up.

We believe that children and young people have a right to play, meet their friends and take part in sports in a clean, smokefree environment.”

Dr Sharon Hopkins, Director of Public Health at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, said, “We are committed to making all playgrounds smoke-free and are pleased that families can enjoy this beautiful spot without the threat of smoke.

The number of people smoking is falling across Cardiff and the Vale, but we know it is still too high in some areas. Having smoke-free playgrounds, homes and hospital grounds are important steps in combating the adverse impact of second-hand smoke. We recognise that smoking is a very difficult habit to kick, which is why there are free support services available at pharmacies and from organisations like Stop Smoking Wales.”

Talented Bridgend pupils win national poem competition

The thought-provoking poems and pictures of pupils from a Bridgend primary school have been published in a mini-book after winning an all Wales competition about smoking.

Almost all of the children from St Robert’s RC Primary School in Aberkenfig, Bridgend, recently entered the competition to create a poem or poster about what smoking inside the home feels like to them.

In total there were 804 entries from 14 primary schools across Wales, with a shortlisted 100 making it into the book. Of the top 100 entries which made it into the mini-book, 28 came from St Robert’s RC Primary School.

The competition and book were created by ASH Wales Cymru, the leading organisation in Wales working for a smokefree Wales. Their latest campaign, ‘Smokefree Homes’, aims to raise awareness of the harms smoking inside the home causes to children, family members and even pets.

Adele Pember, ASH Wales’ Creative Design and Marketing Officer, said, “We’ve been overwhelmed with the amount of entries we received for this competition. We know that over 22% of children are regularly exposed to second-hand smoke in their family environment and that is why this campaign and the hard work of all the children involved is so important. Our aim is to raise awareness to families and protect those young people from harm.”

Claire Jones, Healthy Schools Coordinator for St Robert’s RC Primary School, said, “We are so pleased with how successful our children were in ASH Wales’ competition. We were keen to take part in order to continue to develop the work St. Robert’s does towards being a healthy school. Our children took time to consider the effects of smoking in the home and the implications it can have on all the family.  We hoped that the children would take these messages home to encourage parents to think about the consequences smoking can have for every member of the family. “

Claire Jones continued, “The children were thrilled with the results of the competition and were so proud to have had their work published.”

ASH Wales will be running a second poetry and art competition from this September to coincide with their next campaign, around smokefree school gates. To get involve and for further information, contact ASH Wales.

Belarusian orphanage benefits from Welsh youth project

A Welsh stop smoking youth organisation has gone international with its first successful foreign project being delivered in a Belarusian orphanage in Minsk thanks to European funding.

The Filter Wales is a youth project which supports 11 to 25 year olds from across the country to quit smoking through engaging and inclusive workshops. Run by tobacco control campaign group ASH Wales Cymru, it has already worked with 6,000 young people over the past 4 years.

40% of long term smokers in the UK start before the age of 16 and currently 9% of 15 to 16 year olds in Wales smoke regularly.

The Welsh scheme is being replicated as part of a new European, Erasmus Plus funded project called The Filter Europe. It will run in five partner countries; Spain, Austria, Romania, Belarus and Poland – with Belarus the first to start this substantial project.

The new European project will specifically work with hundreds of youths from disadvantaged areas, just as The Filter has done here in Wales.

The Filter Europe recently launched in Minsk’s Number Five Orphanage and aims to teach the children about the harms of smoking through informal discussions and art therapy.

Around 50% of men and 11% of women smoke in Belarus – a country where the tobacco industry is owned by the government.

Mikalai Karenski, who runs the Belarusian project, said, “Any kind of dependency, such as with smoking, restricts a person’s choice and prevents them from building their life as they want.”

“We taught the children how important it is to be independent, including independent from smoking. It is important to teach them to be responsible for their life, their choices and they understood that. We all need to realise that independence is the path to personal growth.”

Julie Edwards, who runs ASH Wales’ European partnerships, said, “This project is a great opportunity to share best practice with other European countries on how to tackle young people smoking.”

“Young people are the tobacco industry’s key target since they are the only ones who can replace their lifelong, but dying customers.  Two thirds of smokers start before the age of 18 and that’s why we must tackle this problem.

Suzanne Cass, Chief Executive of ASH Wales, said, “Working alongside other European countries will be an invaluable learning experience for ASH Wales’ youth team who already work with so many young people in disadvantaged communities across Wales.”

New research shows e-cigarettes are not a gateway for young people to take up smoking

New research released today shows no evidence that e-cigarettes are a ‘gateway’ for young people to start smoking.

The annual survey, by tobacco control campaign group, ASH Wales Cymru, questioned more than 830, 11 to 18 year olds across Wales.

For the third year running the survey shows there is no link between youths vaping and starting smoking tobacco.

It has been a concern among health professionals since the rapid emergence of e-cigarettes that they would ‘renormalise’ smoking and act as a ‘gateway’ towards tobacco for young people.

Of the young people who reported using both e-cigarettes and tobacco cigarettes at some point, 90% had used tobacco first, suggesting the absence of any ‘gateway’ theory. The report confirms e-cigarette use is confined to current smokers or ex-smokers and they are rarely used among ‘never’ smokers.

It also showed more than 30% of the e-cigarette users had quit smoking altogether. Reasons for using e-cigarettes varied from taste, to friends using them, to wanting to know what they were like.

Young people from the poorest parts of Wales were 25% more likely to have used an e-cigarette compared to their counterparts in the least deprived areas of the country.

These statistics around use by young people match recent results around adult usage from the Welsh Health Survey 2015. This was the first time the Welsh Health Survey had looked at e-cigarette use. It revealed that 6% of over 16’s stated they currently use an e-cigarette – 140,000 of the Welsh population. Use among never smokers was negligible at 0.06%.

For the third year in a row our research confirms young people are not using e-cigarettes if they’ve never smoked before.

E-cigarettes can contain highly addictive nicotine and there is no need for young non-smokers to use the devices. We are pleased to see these latest results confirm that e-cigarettes are being used as a smoking cessation device, similar to nicotine patches or gum and at the moment are not acting as a gateway towards tobacco.  E-cigarette users are now reducing the harm to their bodies caused by poisonous and cancer-causing tobacco smoke.”

Suzanne Cass, Chief Executive of ASH Wales “There is a lot of confusion about the relationship between e-cigarettes and smoking in young people. Surveys from other countries do keep claiming there is a link despite youth smoking rates continuing to fall in the countries where these studies take place. This new data from Wales should reassure people that although young people are experimenting with e-cigarettes, we are not seeing regular use in never smokers. Meanwhile, youth smoking rates in Wales continue to decline, which is key to preventing cancer and other diseases that smoking causes.”
Professor Linda Bauld from the University of Stirling and UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies

“We are pleased that latest ASH Wales Cymru findings highlight encouraging trends to show that young people in Wales are not turning to e-cigarettes as a way to start smoking but rather as a way to reduce harm caused by intake of tobacco by cigarettes.”

Ruth Coombs, Head of British Heart Foundation (BHF) Cymru