Oxfordshire plans to become the first 'smoke-free' county in England 

Oxfordshire is planning to become the first ‘smoke-free’ county in England as local health chiefs want to kick the habit by 2025.

Government officials hope to slash the number of people smoking in the UK to just five per cent of the population by 2030.

But Ansaf Azhar, the county council’s director of public health, wants Oxfordshire to achieve the target in just five years’ time. 

Ansaf Azhar, the county council’s director of public health, said the hope is nobody will be smoking cigarettes in Oxfordshire in five years’ time

Oxfordshire’s Health Improvement Partnership Board met yesterday to discuss the benefits of achieving the ‘smoke-free’ target.

The board consists members from Oxfordshire’s five district councils, as well as the county council, Thames Valley Police, and local health organisations.

Local officials claimed it would save the council millions of pounds on healthcare, workplace productivity, social care and even house fires.

According to data from the charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), smoking costs the Oxfordshire economy a total of £121.7million each year.

Mr Azhar said the plan, called the Oxfordshire Tobacco Control Strategy, was a ‘step change’ in how smoking was treated in the county.

Mr Azhar told the board the poorest parts of Oxfordshire were hit the hardest by the health problems and the costs of the habit.

And he added that Oxfordshire will carry on with existing methods, as well as making more smoke-free environments and helping smokers quit. 

Approximately 10 per cent of the county smokes regularly at the moment, which equates to approximately 54,804 people, according to the report.

The report, presented to the board, also revealed 2,132 people died from smoking-related causes in Oxfordshire between 2012 and 2017.

A breakdown of the £121.7million costs of smoking to the Oxfordshire economy includes £25.7million spent on NHS care.

A further £7.4million cost to the local economy comes from paying for social care for the people struck by smoking related illness.

£86million is lost from people out of work with smoking related illnesses, deaths, and even smoking breaks at work causing a loss in productivity.

It is also estimated that smoking related house fires cost the Oxfordshire economy £2.7million.

ASH also said 23 tonnes of waste, or enough to fill 421 wheelie bins, is gathered in the form of cigarette butts in Oxfordshire each year.

Around 7.4million people in the UK regularly smoke tobacco, along with about a billion people – mostly men – worldwide.

Government initiatives to cut smoking rates have been introduced regularly over the past 15 years in the UK.

Health warnings on packaging became mandatory in 2002, adverts were banned in 2003 and smoking indoors was banned in 2007.

And officials followed up the measures in 2017 with a policy that meant all branded packaging had to be replaced with plain greenish-brown boxes.

Smoking tobacco is the biggest avoidable cause of cancer and is known to produce chemicals which cause at least 15 different forms of the disease.

It causes around 70 per cent of all cases of lung cancer, which has the highest death count of any cancer.

People are drawn to smoking because nicotine can make them feel good, but it’s easy to become addicted and very difficult to quit once smoking becomes a habit.