Illicit tobacco – exploring the role of the NHS stop smoking services to help to tackle the issue

Author and presenters:
Andrea Crossfield
Director, Smokefree North West, Manchester, UK

Ailsa Rutter
Director, FRESH – Smoke Free North East, Chester-le-Street, UK

Abstract
Illicit tobacco – whether it be smuggled, bootlegged, counterfeit or cheap white – undermines the work of the NHS stop smoking services because it makes it easier and on the whole, cheaper, for smokers to keep smoking, smoke more, be tempted to have ‘just one’ and relapse, or indeed start in the first place. Consumer insight from the North of England Tackling Illicit Tobacco for Better Health Programme (illicittobacconorth.org.uk) has shown that there are segments of the population who can be influenced in terms of supplying intelligence and also to shift their purchasing behaviour. Some groups were receptive to receiving information about illicit tobacco from their health care professionals. In 2008/9, 671,000 smokers set quit dates in England with the NHS stop smoking services representing a significant pool of smokers who could potentially be reached by messages around illicit tobacco and could also help to fill some information gaps relating to the market.

This workshop will share the detailed consumer insight around which groups are easiest to target and the most effective messages and explore ideas on how services themselves could be messengers and also provide some invaluable information relating to the local illicit market. Initial findings from a focus group with stop smoking advisors in the North West of England will be shared and a discussion around the day to day issues services face relating to illicit tobacco explored.

Source of funding: DH and PCT funds.

Declaration of interest: none

About the presenters
Andrea Crossfield is the Department of Health’s Regional Tobacco Policy Manager for the North West and Director of Smokefree North West, an NHS programme funded by all 24 Primary Care Trusts in the region. She was previously Programme Director for SmokeFree Liverpool and her background is in local government.

Andrea is actively involved in the Smokefree Action Coalition and a European Network for Smokefree Communities. She has a keen interest in public health advocacy and believes the success of the tobacco control advocacy movement can provide lessons for good practice and for future partnership work for tobacco control and across wider public health agendas. Tackling tobacco related health inequalities and breaking the intergenerational cycle of children and young people’s exposure to and addiction to tobacco are her key priorities in the region. She is married with two children. Her other passions include yoga, theatre, reading and sunshine.

Ailsa originally trained as a nurse at London University and worked in the cardiac care field for five years. She has worked in tobacco control since 1998 after studying for an MSc in Health Promotion in Brisbane and her first tobacco post was heading up the Queensland Quit Campaign from 1998 – 2000. On her return to the UK in 2000, she was the Manager of the Gateshead and South Tyneside NHS Stop Smoking Service from 2000 – 2004 before taking up the post of Regional Tobacco Policy Manager for the North East of England, and in 2005 launched the UK’s first dedicated regional office and programme for tobacco control- FRESH Smoke Free North East- and has been its Director since 2006. In 2009, the FRESH programme won the Gold Medal at the Chief Medical Officer inaugural awards for public health. She is passionate about this work, having lost her father to emphysema at the age of 61 and is proud to be working in partnership with many agencies to help to deliver social norm change and ensure that all work together to successfully tackle the greatest cause of health inequalities.