Ireland scores highly for tobacco control

Ireland is second out of 27 European countries for tobacco control measures, according to the EU’s ‘Help – For a Life Without Tobacco’ campaign.

The news came today at the launch of the campaign’s carbon monoxide (CO) test results in Dublin.

A country’s Tobacco Control Score is calculated over six categories that include price, public place bans (both of which Ireland scored well in), public information campaign spending, advertising bans, health warnings and treatment.

Ireland achieved a score of 74in this survey, leaving it second only to the UK from a pool of 27 participating countries.

Speaking at the launch, Professor Luke Clancy, Director General of the Tobacco Free Research Institute, said while it was good news that Ireland had achieved this result, there was no room for complacency.

"We need to keep a focus on young people so that we can help them not to start smoking and encourage smokers to quit. Budget price hikes do help and a ban on ten-packs have also been useful, but there is still a great deal more work to be done to denormalise smoking.”

Today’s launch marks the end of a three-year campaign that saw 340,000 Europeans partake in carbon monoxide testing. There were 4,276 participants in Ireland, 63% of whom were smokers. The test involves blowing into CO tester – much like a breathalyser – and then answering a few questions about how recently and how much you smoke – if at all – and also what you smoked.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a polluting gas linked to combustion. It is extremely toxic, but it is colourless and odourless and is nicknamed the ‘invisible killer’.

CO is produced by vehicle exhausts, water heating appliances, coal-burning stoves as well as smoking cigarettes, cigars and pipes.

According to Professor Bertrand Dautzenberg, who consulted to the EU on the ‘Help – For a Life Without Tobacco’ campaign, 8.5 parts per million exhaled (COex) is a safe level of carbon monoxide for people living in urban areas.

The CO test results revealed that the average rate for non-smoking men and women in Ireland is 3.0 and 3.2 respectively. In Europe the rate is 3.2 and 3.8 respectively. Among Irish smokers, women have a rate of 15.2 and men 16.7. The corresponding EU rate is 15.0 and 17.8.

[Posted: Tue 28/10/2008]