Smoking is a complex issue that requires comprehensive approaches to help change behaviours. These approaches include legislation and policy changes, enforcement, health promotion and cessation support. To regularly monitor public opinion about various ways to reduce the number of smokers in this country and aid the development of appropriate health promotion strategies, respondents were asked a series of questions in the Health Sponsorship Council’s (HSC’s) 2008 and 2010 Health and Lifestyles Surveys (HLSs). This fact sheet explores the results to these questions as given by the data from the HLSs.
Key Results
• In 2010, around two-thirds of respondents agreed that the government should do more in tobacco control.
• In 2010, around two-thirds of respondents agreed with the following regulation measures:
People were more likely to ‘strongly agree’ that the government should do more in tobacco control, and that the four
• Implementing plain packaging.
• Reducing the number of retail outlets that sell tobacco.
• Removing tobacco displays from shops.
• Increasing dedicated tax on tobacco products for cessation support.
People were more likely to ‘strongly agree’ that the government should do more in tobacco control, and that the four specific tobacco control interventions be implemented in 2010 than in 2008.