London's health—going up in smoke?

Abstract

According to a new report commissioned by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, London is ranked seventh of 14 comparable cities around the world in terms of health. Better Health for London assesses how health and health care can be improved in important areas, including children's health and obesity (London has the highest rate of childhood obesity of any major global city), physical inactivity of Londoners, and health-care services. Presented to the Mayor on Oct 15, this commission proposes ten key aspirations and 64 recommendations to make London the healthiest major city worldwide.One welcome aspiration is to have the “lowest smoking rate of any city with over 5 million inhabitants”. This ambitious aim calls for all Royal Parks, Trafalgar Square, and Parliament Square to be non-smoking areas with other local public spaces to follow. Other global cities already have similar legislation including Hong Kong, China (ranked first of 14), which in 2007 banned smoking in public places (eg, beaches, restaurants, and public parks) by extending the Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance act; and New York, USA, which in 2011 extended the Smoke-free Air Act to make public parks smoke-free. But acceptance of implementation of this recommendation into policy will be difficult; questions are likely to be raised about enforcement during a time of budget cuts.The report's recommendations provide an opportunity to improve the health, services, and economic growth of London, and to set an example for other UK cities. On smoking specifically, although the ninth Statistics on Smoking in England report showed positive decreases in the number of smokers aged 16 years and older—from 26% to 20% during 2000–12—little change has occurred in the past 2 years. A smoking ban in parks could be a constructive move to help reduce the prevalence of smoking, denormalise the habit, and decrease the number of schoolchildren who start smoking, which is currently about 67 every day in London. Such policies are important to fight the serious lung and cardiovascular diseases attributed to smoking, and should encourage people to stop smoking themselves. The next challenge for the Mayor of London is to put the recommendations into practice. According to a new report commissioned by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, London is ranked seventh of 14 comparable cities around the world in terms of health. Better Health for London assesses how health and health care can be improved in important areas, including children's health and obesity (London has the highest rate of childhood obesity of any major global city), physical inactivity of Londoners, and health-care services. Presented to the Mayor on Oct 15, this commission proposes ten key aspirations and 64 recommendations to make London the healthiest major city worldwide. One welcome aspiration is to have the “lowest smoking rate of any city with over 5 million inhabitants”. This ambitious aim calls for all Royal Parks, Trafalgar Square, and Parliament Square to be non-smoking areas with other local public spaces to follow. Other global cities already have similar legislation including Hong Kong, China (ranked first of 14), which in 2007 banned smoking in public places (eg, beaches, restaurants, and public parks) by extending the Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance act; and New York, USA, which in 2011 extended the Smoke-free Air Act to make public parks smoke-free. But acceptance of implementation of this recommendation into policy will be difficult; questions are likely to be raised about enforcement during a time of budget cuts. The report's recommendations provide an opportunity to improve the health, services, and economic growth of London, and to set an example for other UK cities. On smoking specifically, although the ninth Statistics on Smoking in England report showed positive decreases in the number of smokers aged 16 years and older—from 26% to 20% during 2000–12—little change has occurred in the past 2 years. A smoking ban in parks could be a constructive move to help reduce the prevalence of smoking, denormalise the habit, and decrease the number of schoolchildren who start smoking, which is currently about 67 every day in London. Such policies are important to fight the serious lung and cardiovascular diseases attributed to smoking, and should encourage people to stop smoking themselves. The next challenge for the Mayor of London is to put the recommendations into practice.