200 more lives will be lost every year with Government's partial smoking ban in pubs - Burstow

5.02.32pm GMT Thu 1st Dec 2005

Liberal Democrat MP and Commons Health Committee Member Paul Burstow MP told Parliament today that two hundred more people will die every year if the Government's partial smoking ban is implemented, when compared to a full ban on smoking in all public places.

In an intervention during Second Reading of the Health Bill, Paul Burstow's calculation was based on the Government's own figures outlined in their Partial Regulatory Impact Assessment - Smokefree aspects of the Health Bill.

Paul Burstow commented:

"The extra loss of life in implementing a partial smoking ban in pubs, as opposed to a comprehensive ban on smoking in all public places, is clear.

"There will be six hundred preventable deaths in the three years it will take the Department to review it's policy, if they get their way with a partial ban.

"How can it be right to legislate to protect workers from the harmful effects of second hand smoke in the majority of workplaces, but then fail to extend the protection to bar workers who are most at risk?"

ENDS

Notes to editors:

200 deaths would have been averted by adopting a full smoking ban in public places, compared to the proposed partial ban.

This figure is based on the Government's Partial Regulatory Impact Assessment - Smokefree aspects of the Health Bill which sets out:

1. Annual benefits of £350m on averted deaths to people if a full ban was adopted, compared with savings of as little as £150m per year with the proposed food/non-food exemptions.

£350m - £150m = £200m.

(Source: Cost/Benefits of Action on Secondhand Smoke table, page 14.)

2. Annex A, p 20 of the Partial Regulatory Impact Assessment - Smokefree aspects of the Health Bill, sets out the calculation used by the Government for the value of life years as: a) each life year gained valued at £30,000 and b) the value of a statistical life as about £1m.

Therefore, the £200m annual benefits lost by implementing the ban with food/non-food exemptions as opposed to a full ban can be converted to 200 lives per year.

Annex A

Notes on derivation of figures

Calculation of value of life years - The mortality benefits from smoking cessation are converted into life years gained using epidemiological evidence as to the increase in life expectancy associated with smoking cessation. Each life year gained is valued at £30,000. This value of a life year in turn is derived from (a) the Department of Transport's value of a statistical life, about £1m or a little over (b) statistics showing that the average road death leads to a loss of about 35 years of life years.

Benefits

a) Averted deaths from secondhand smoke - The deaths averted from second hand smoke are calculated for the workplace and public places separately. The estimates rely on a combination of factors: (a) estimates of prevalence of exposure to secondhand smoke in different locations (b) epidemiological evidence as to the dangers of these levels of secondhand smoke exposure. The reductions in mortality are then converted into life years lost and evaluated in money terms using similar assumptions as in deaths averted by smoking cessation. For a complete ban the benefit in public places is £350m and in the workplace £21m. Option 1 uses 20% of these figures to illustrate the assumption that voluntary action would deliver much less than a ban. Option 4 is assumed to deliver less than half the secondhand smoke protection associated with a full ban for customers because of the exemptions in hospitality sector. Among workers the protection is, across the workforce, practically the same as for Option 2.

b) Averted deaths from smokers giving up -The numbers giving up were estimated by combining evidence as to (a) the current distribution of the workforce by degree of smoking restriction (b) evidence as to the effect on smoking cessation of different degrees of smoking restriction. Those stopping were assumed to gain on average one year of life expectancy, valued at about £30,000. The estimate of the numbers giving up as a result of a ban in public places is based on restrictions in pubs. It extrapolates from the workplace ban adjusting for the different period of enforced abstinence and an estimate of the time smokers spend in pubs.