The Health Improvement Commission says there is strong support for further measures to restrict smoking in public places.
The charity carried out a public consultation which included surveys and youth focus groups, all of which indicated majority support for measures like banning smoking in playgrounds, raising the legal smoking age to 21, and expanding smoke-free outdoor areas.
The Commission said it carried out the research to better understand public opinions on potential tobacco control measures.
In total 906 adults completed the survey, with 30 young people taking part in the focus groups.
With the most up to date data suggesting that around 64,364 people live in Guernsey, that means the group quizzed represents around 1.45% of the total population.
Dr Nicola Brink, Guernsey’s Director of Public Health, thanked them for sharing their views.
“This work and findings are so valuable in providing direction on future tobacco policy.
“We are grateful to the Health Improvement Commission for conducting this research but most importantly to all the adults and young people that gave their thoughts and feelings. This provides information to the Committee for Health & Social Care and the States of Guernsey to inform future policy development.”
The survey results showed that a majority of adults supported 11 proposed policies, including bans on smoking in children’s playgrounds and outdoor areas of restaurants.
Young people agreed with those measures too, particularly regarding smoke-free spaces and efforts to reduce the number of tobacco retailers.
In all, 89% of Guernsey adults support banning smoking in children’s playgrounds, whilst 79% of Guernsey adults support banning smoking in transit areas such as covered bus shelters.
73% of Guernsey adults support raising the legal age of tobacco sales from 18 to 21, and 66% of Guernsey adults support banning smoking in outdoor areas of sports venues.
According to the Health Improvement Commission, 1 in 10 deaths of people aged 35 and older comes down to smoking.
Lucy Cave, the Tobacco Harm Reduction Officer at the Health Improvement Commission, said they wanted the public’s help to guide future policy to reduce that number.
“We conducted this research because despite local smoking rates reducing in recent times smoking continues to cause around 10% of deaths of people aged 35 and older,” she said.
“Guernsey has a history of taking bold upstream measures to reduce smoking rates, and we wanted to understand the views of the public on steps that could be taken in the future to continue this work. Public opinion is a key part of policy making.”