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Tobacco smoking in the United Kingdom is prevalent among a sizeable, but constantly reducing minority of the population. Smoking is legally permitted, with certain conditions upon location arising from the bans enacted separately in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It has been argued that smoking in the UK puts considerable strain upon the National Health Service (NHS) due to the health problems which can be directly linked with smoking. Successive UK Governments have endeavoured to reduce the prevalence of smoking. As part of this commitment the NHS currently offers free help to smokers who want to stop smoking. As recently as 1979, some 45% of the British population smoked, but this was down to 30% by the early 1990s, 21% by 2010, and 19.3% by 2013, the lowest level for 80 years. An annual No Smoking Day has occurred in March since 1984. Smoking in workplaces and enclosed public spaces has been illegal since 26 March 2006 in Scotland, 1 July 2007 in England, 30 April 2007 in Northern Ireland and 2 April 2007 in Wales. Starting with retailers larger than 280 square meteres in England on 6 April 2012 to smaller shops nationwide on 6 April 2015 the display of tobacco products was banned. In March 2011, the Coalition Government committed itself to holding a public consultation on the introduction of plain tobacco packaging. Influenced the introduction of plain packs in Australia the House of Commons voted 367-113 in March 2015 to pass the Children and Families Act 2014 which would give the government the power to require plain packaging for tobacco products. This is due come into force in May 2016. On 2 April 2014 the Welsh Government published a public health white paper in which it proposed a ban on the use of e-cigarettes in public spaces. The proposal was supported by the Welsh Minister for Health and Social Services Mark Drakeford citing concerns that e-cigarettes could normalise smoking behaviour for young people and encourage them to take up smoking tobacco. ==Health issues== It has been estimated by Cancer Research UK that smoking is the single greatest cause of preventable illness and early death with around 107,000 people dying in 2007 from smoking-related diseases including cancers in the UK. Around 86% of lung cancer deaths in the UK are caused by tobacco smoking and overall tobacco smoking is estimated to be responsible for more than a quarter of cancer deaths in the UK, around 43,000 deaths in 2007. The British Medical Journal states that due to the drive to help smokers quit smoking, Britain has the world's largest reduction in the number of deaths from lung cancer. Previously in 1950 the UK had one of the worst rates in the world. The annual number of deaths from lung cancer in 2000 was half of what it was in 1965. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Smoking in the United Kingdom」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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