Discounted drinks and tobacco: “not the answer”
The cost of living crisis is having a huge impact on everyone and supermarkets absolutely should be doing what they can to alleviate the situation for consumers. However, discounting harmful products is not the answer.
Prof Jim McManus
ADPH President
Directors of Public Health (DsPH) are calling on supermarket chain Nisa to stop discounting alcohol and tobacco products amid concerns that the move will deter people from trying to cut down or quit.
Alcohol caused 8,974 deaths in the UK in 2020, while tobacco remains the leading cause of premature and preventable death in the UK, killing 74,600 people in England in 2019 alone.
Millions of pounds are spent every year to reduce these statistics, with DsPH across the country working with a wide range of organisations to ensure enough support is given to people trying to cut down and quit.
Professor Jim McManus, President of the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH), said:
“The cost of living crisis is having a huge impact on everyone and supermarkets absolutely should be doing what they can to alleviate the situation for consumers. However, discounting harmful products is not the answer.
“While the intention is good, cutting the prices of alcohol and tobacco is counterproductive. We would like to see local businesses concentrating their efforts on discounting products like fruit and veg, or nappies – essential goods that contribute to helping families live healthier lives.
Earlier this year, the worrying health consequences of the cost of living crisis was highlighted in a joint Annual Report produced by ADPH and the Local Government Association.
“By making harmful products more accessible, there is a real danger of exacerbating the crisis – which is already being felt the most by people with the least financial resilience.”
DsPH work at a local level to tackle preventable ill-health, and to highlight the need to prevent illness in order to alleviate demand on the NHS.
Prof. McManus added:
“Only through preventing people becoming ill in the first place will we solve the other crisis the country is facing – that of the NHS. Billions of pounds are spent by the NHS treating people who are ill as a direct result of smoking or drinking. We want to work with local businesses, not against them, for what should surely be everyone’s common cause – to support us all to live longer, healthier lives.”
ENDS